Education secretary Bridget Phillipson locked horns with Radio 4 presenter Amol Rajan over reports of a split within the cabinet this morning.
Senior ministers – including deputy PM Angela Rayner – allegedly wrote to Keir Starmer this week over their concerns that the Treasury’s spending plans ahead of the October 30 Budget.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is allegedly planning to cut some departments’ spending by as much as 20% for 2025 to 2026 allocations.
It comes as Reeves tries to balance the books – and raise up to £40bn – after public sector wage settlements and departmental overspend.
According to The Times, Rayner, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and transport secretary Louise Haigh voiced concerns to the PM in their cabinet meeting this week and followed it up with letters.
So on Radio 4′s Today programme, Rajan asked Phillipson: “Are you one of the ministers who has written to the prime minister to express alarm at the scale of the savings you’re being expected to make by the Treasury?”
Phillipson replied: “You wouldn’t expect me to be commenting on Budget speculation –”
“It’s not Budget speculation!” Rajan cut in. “Hang on a second, it’s semantics here. Excuse me a second, that’s semantics acrobatics!”
“No no, you’re talking about private conversations,” she insisted.
Rajan hit back: “No no, I’m not talking about private conversations. I want to know whether you can say to our listeners that spending on education will be protected.
“It’s not gossip, it’s not tittle tattle.”
“That wasn’t what you asked,” Phillipson insisted. “What you asked was whether I had chosen to write in that way.
“What I can tell your listeners is that I am determined to deliver a better deal for learners and young people right across our country. ”
She added that there were conversations going on across the government about the Budget “as you would expect, in the usual way”.
The education secretary refused to say if her department was “protected” from any of Reeves’ cuts.
Phillipson also told Sky News: “There are some difficult choices that we’re all having to confront. We as cabinet ministers have conversations with the Treasury, with others, in order to get a good settlement.”
A government readout from this week’s cabinet meeting claimed the PM told his top team that “tough decisions” where needed “so we can invest in the future”.
But, Reeves has promised not to return to austerity and stick to the manifesto pledge of not increasing taxes on working people.