Kevin Brennan MP, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, today has written to Chris Womald, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Education, following the media broadcast of an email exchange between Michael Gove’s former special adviser Dominic Cummings and BBC World at One over free school meals policy.

Full text of letter below

Dear Mr Wormald,

You will be aware that today’s BBC Radio 4 World At One programme has broadcast an email exchange between the programme and Michael Gove’s former special adviser, Dominic Cummings, about the Government’s free school meals policy. A transcript of the exchange is below.

Q: How did the policy come about in the first place?

A: Clegg’s team tried to persuade us to do it in 2013. We refused. So Clegg said to Cameron in secret before party conferences, ‘you give me this and I’ll give you your marriage tax announcement for Tory conference, Gove refuses to do it so you’ll have to force him.’ The DfE wasn’t told until about an hour or so before the announcement. No policy work was done in advance.

Q: Did the Department for Education support the policy and did it believe it would work?

A: Officials in DfE were unanimous that it was a bad gimmick and introduced in a way that makes it hard to avoid implementation chaos. Officials were obviously right.

Q: What warnings did the Department for Education give about the idea?

A: We told Clegg a) it was a bad idea in principle as there were much bigger priorities for spending a billion quid; b) if he and DC were determined on it, do not rush it in, it would impose big demands on schools (e.g. new kitchens) at a time when they have a lot of really important changes to adapt to, that we wouldn’t be able to do it sensibly in time, and c) that all the figures bandied about were junk and he should not say them publicly.

Q: What form did the warnings take? (emails? Meetings? Letters?)

A: All three.

Q: Where did the £150m budget for capital spending on kitchens and dining rooms come from?

A: It was a back of the fag packet number by Clegg’s spin doctors. We told them it was rubbish. It is based on a supposed DfE underspend that did not exist and they were told it did not exist. Because Clegg only thinks about politics - and starts every meeting saying 'I haven’t been able to read the policy papers but let’s talk about the politics’ - he assumed that our opposition was because it was a Clegg idea but it wasn’t. Our opposition was because it is a dumb idea badly executed that shows why politicians should have less power over schools, and although I had many disagreements with Whitehall officials and the methods of the civil service, this is very firmly the fault of Clegg and NOT CIVIL SERVANTS IN GENERAL AND THE DFE IN PARTICULAR.

These claims, coming from someone who was working very closely with Michael Gove at the time that the policy was announced, make very serious allegations which call into question the quality of decision-making in the Department for Education and in the Coalition as a whole.

I would therefore be grateful if you could answer the following questions.

• Do the emails give an accurate account of discussions within the Department for Education, and between the Department for Education and other parts of the Government, about the free school meals policy?
• Did the Department for Education warn the Deputy Prime Minister and others that the policy would impose demands on schools that they would find it difficult to meet?
• Did the Department for Education tell the Deputy Prime Minister’s office that the £150 million budget for capital spending for the policy was not an accurate calculation of the costs, and based on an underspend that did not exist?
• Given Mr Cummings’s closeness to the Secretary of State for Education, the sensitivity of his former role and the timing of his comments, there is understandable speculation that his intervention could have been made with the knowledge and/or endorsement of individuals within the Department. Are you satisfied that this is not the case and what measures have you taken to ensure such events do not occur?

In light of the public interest in these matters, I am releasing this letter to the media. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Kevin Brennan