§ Q4. Mr. Edward DaveyWhen he next plans to visit the Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames.
§ The Prime MinisterI have no plans to do so.
§ Mr. DaveyI am disappointed that the Prime Minister is not planning to come to Kingston, as there are some people whom I should like him to meet. Has he heard of the case of the head teacher at St. John's Church of England primary school, who has resigned because he is fed up with having to implement Government education cuts every year? Ofsted described that head teacher as inspirational. Is the Prime Minister happy to lose head teachers of that quality, just to implement Tory spending cuts? Now that the Institute for Fiscal Studies has confirmed that the Treasury has a war chest, will the Prime Minister assure the people of Kingston that his Government will start to invest in education to meet his early years pledge before he reduces income tax to 10p?
§ The Prime MinisterFirst, of course I regret any head teacher who does not want to be part of our education system.
In relation to the IFS, the hon. Gentleman is wrong. It does not confirm the Liberal Democrats' figures at all. Indeed, it is extremely important that we keep a tight rein on public spending because of the mess that we inherited—a large structural deficit that we must cure. We have to do that.
However, substantially more money is going into education under this Government than under the previous Government. An extra £1 billion is going into next year's budget. There is the £1.2 billion school repairs programme. As I have pointed out before from this Dispatch Box, the Liberal Democrats before the election asked for money to be spent on school repairs, and on current expenditure.
§ The Prime MinisterWe have the school repairs programme, and the money is going in this year. They asked for £500 million. We have given £1.2 million and they still complain about it.