York Outer Labour's Luke Charters in school safety row

As The Press reported yesterday, no schools in York have been forced to close after the government urged 150 schools across England which contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) to close affected buildings.

Luke Charters, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for York Outer, responding to the RAAC crisis in schools, hit out at the Government's record on school safety, accusing the Tories of being 'asleep at the wheel'. 

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Mr Charters has said an urgent audit of all public buildings needs to be carried out.

He referred to a Labour parliamentary motion back in May - the Safety of Schools Building bill - which called on the Government to make public the condition of school buildings, which sitting Conservative MP for York Outer, Julian Sturdy, voted against.

He said: “York Outer Tory MP Julian Sturdy shamefully voted against publishing surveys on school building safety back in May.

"His dereliction of duty to his constituents cannot go unnoticed.

“It’s time that this Conservative government came clean about which schools are affected, what they knew about this dangerous concrete, and the decisions they took which have seen more than a hundred close. 

“An urgent, full audit is required to find out the extent that Conservative ministers failed to replace this dangerous concrete across the public sector estate.”

Luke Charters and Julian Sturdy (Image: Supplied)

In reply, Mr Sturdy said: "I am happy to put on record my stance of supporting school rebuilding and improvements across York with Wheldrake and Thorganby Primary School, Tang Hall Primary School, Hempland Primary School and All Saints RC School all benefitting from Department for Education grants in recent years. 

"RAAC in schools is understandably a very concerning issue for families.

"In York, no schools have closed and the new academic year has begun as normal. Of 22,000 schools and colleges, less than one per cent are known to be affected with ten per cent remaining to be surveyed. The Government had begun monitoring building made with RAAC in 2018 and took the precautionary measure to close off schools with RAAC after two schools that had passed surveys reported issues.

"While the Government has acted swiftly to address the rising concern, Welsh Labour only closed impacted schools last night in the face of mounting public pressure and the SNP have closed no schools. Surveys are being expedited and all mitigation work will be funded with dedicated Department for Education caseworkers liaising with schools to resolve issues as soon as possible.

"On my voting record, the Safety of Schools Building bill was an Opposition Day Motion which tried to take control of the order paper from Government. Labour refused to present the Bill without such overreach so ultimately I could not support it and they chose to put parliamentary jousting ahead of passing the Bill.

"In contrast, I supported the Priority Schools Building Programme, which Labour opposed, despite the fact it helped rebuild 261 schools in its first round of funding before being backed by an additional £6billion to build 277 further schools."