Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on Ofsted’s letter to Nicky Morgan today about her Department’s failure to close down illegal schools, said:

“That this Government appears to be content to allow children to remain in illegal schools where they are at risk of exposure to narrow curriculums, misogynist, homophobic and anti-Semitic material and staff who haven’t been cleared to work with children, is truly shocking. Every day children remain in such a school is a day too long. The Government has a basic responsibility to ensure that children are kept safe, and yet despite warning after warning, they have failed to take swift action and arrangements for closing down unregistered schools are still wholly inadequate. This is nothing short of a disgrace.

“The consequences of the Government failing to take this issue seriously are severe – significant numbers of children, including those who could be at risk of being radicalised, are ending up in unregistered provision, where they could be exposed to extremist ideologies. Without a doubt, the dangerous void in the local oversight of our schools system, created by this Government’s education policy, is allowing children to end up in harm’s way.”