HC Deb 08 May 1990 vol 172 cc12-3
16. Mr. Corbyn

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received regarding expenditure on education in Islington; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Rumbold

My right hon. Friend has received in the past month one representation about expenditure on education in Islington.

Mr. Corbyn

Will the Minister confirm that among the representations that she has received are a deep concern about the availability of public finance to maintain Islington's education service after 1992, when the transitional arrangements end, and a very deep concern by the local authority, parents and pupils of all our schools about the difficult conditions in which they must work because of the poor state of school buildings and the urgent need for central Government money to be put in to improve the quality of the working environment for teachers and pupils?

Mrs. Rumbold

I think that the hon. Gentleman will find that the transitional money that has been given to inner London education authorities as they take over the responsibility for education will be more than adequate to help and to ease them through the period of changeover. In the discussions that I have had with them, they are confident that the changeover will be most successful. If problems arise in future, obviously that is the time when we should look at them.

Mr. Harry Greenway

rose——

Hon. Members

Hear, hear.

Mr. Speaker

Order. I remind the House that the question is about Islington.

Mr. Greenway

Does the Minister agree that, if the good people of Islington had shown the same good sense—[Interruption.]—as the people of Ealing last Thursday and thrown out the Labour council in Islington in the way we threw out the Labour council in Ealing for ever, they would in future get much better education in Islington, as we shall get in Ealing?

Mrs. Rumbold

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his excellent council and on the excellent result that was achieved on Thursday. I think it likely that, at the next local elections in London, Islington will follow the example of Ealing.