The extent of Michael Gove's relationship with the independent charity responsible for promoting free schools has been exposed through leaked emails.
The emails from Whitehall were sent to civil servants urging them to fast-track the New Schools Network (NSN) bid for cash. The emails, one of them from Gove's confidant Dominic Cummings, were leaked to the Guardian. The Guardian's article reports how Cummings sent messages after the election last May which said: "MG telling the civil servants to find a way to give NSN cash without delay."
The email was addressed to Gove, senior policy advisor Sam Freedman, NSN head Rachel Wolf and Gove's special adviser Henry de Zoete.
Labour MP Nic Dakin, who sits on the education select committee, said: "This gives further concern to suggestions free schools are being politically driven to take public money away from the majority. Money should not be fast tracked to free schools and education needs funding at the sharp end of where kids are getting their education."
The NSN is an independent charity providing advice and guidance on how set up free schools across the UK. After the emails, the charity received £500,000 of funding. The Guardian has reported Cummings now works for the charity on a freelance basis.
Labour's shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said:
"This email starts to lift the lid on the murky world of Michael Gove's free school programme. Before now, I have questioned whether the award of a grant to this organisation followed due process. This email appears to confirm that it did not. At the very least it appears there is a conflict of interest. There is a severe lack of transparency around the free school programme. It appears that cheques are handed out like confetti to certain favoured projects while mainstream schools are left to crumble with their building projects cancelled."
The latest twist in the free schools initiative comes just after the list of free schools opening in September was released.
A DfE spokesperson said: "When the free schools policy was launched, the NSN was the only organisation performing this role. This is why it was best placed to help get the policy off the ground quickly, and to help meet the demand of parents for good, new local schools.
“It is legitimate for Government Departments to award grants to charities and other organisations in certain circumstances. This in line with procurement rules and the Department for Education has done this before.”
The publication of the emails has fuelled even more protestations against the already - controversial free schools initiative.
Melissa Benn, an active campaigner for comprehensive school education has already spoken out against the advocation of free schools.
She told Huffington Post UK: "The e-mails confirm the singular determination with which Gove and a tightly knit network of allies, in and out of government, have pushed forward the free school agenda while at the same time holding back vital information from the public."
Taxpayers Alliance director Matthew Sinclair called for the charity to cease any political activity and focus purely on delivering services. He said: "The government needs to avoid funding politicised charities as people shouldn't be forced to pay for the promotion of view they don't even agree with."
Government estimates for the cost of setting up the free schools has already run into the millions. They have refused to reveal additional costs for individual schools but the overall budget spent on the 24 buildings is between £110m and £130m.
Mrs Benn added: "That's a huge amount of public expenditure already and for just 24 schools. Meanwhile, there are thousands of other schools up and down the country that are in urgent need of resources. Today's e-mail leaks also clearly show that most of the pressure for free schools is coming from the top - not from ordinary parents, as the Tories suggested it would, prior to the election in 2010. This is a highly political and partisan agenda that will benefit the few, and not the many."
The revelations have also riled teacher unions, as schools have had their budgets slashed by the government. A spokesperson for the national association of schoolmasters/women teachers (NASUWT) told Huffington Post UK: "Free schools are an expensive and unnecessary way of funding education. Whilst other funding was cancelled earlier in the year under an austerity banner, taxpayers money has been fast tracked to a small number of schools which are not representative of the majority."