Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the teacher recruitment crisis, said:

“Teacher recruitment is in crisis, yet the Tories won’t even acknowledge the situation, let alone take action to tackle it.

“They are failing to reach their targets year-on-year at the same time as teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

“The Government should be supporting school leaders to replace them and retain our experienced teachers. It is time they got a grip on this instead of obsessing with a tiny number of grammar schools.”