Brown puts education at heart of campaign
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown today characterised the forthcoming General Election as the “education election”.
During a speech in Shipley, Yorkshire, he echoed earlier comments made by Prime Minister Tony Blair to place education at the economy at the heart of the campaign.
Mr Brown identified the challenges Britain faced, such as competition from emerging economies, and explained that this meant the economy would be “the central and most important issue of concern”.
Pledging to challenge other parties on their plans for the economy, he said “the centrepiece of Labour’s campaign is how we equip Britain for the future – and at the heart of that is our commitment to education.”
Britain had to become the best educated, best trained, best skilled nation in the world in order to continue to prosper in the face of these new challenges.
“And because education is so important to the next stage of economic prosperity this will become the education election – Labour investing more in our local schools, the Conservatives investing less.”
Mr Brown set out the Labour Party’s planned investment in education, which would see Britain ranked amongst the nations spending the most on education – ahead of most of its competitors.
He outlined the Labour Party’s investment plans for childcare and early years, schools, and further and higher education. In particular, the Chancellor stressed the importance of ensuring people spent as much time in education as possible.
Mr Brown said: “Our goal as a Labour Party is to create a Britain with opportunity for all as its defining feature.”
He added: “So only by investing in world-class education for all our citizens can we ensure that opportunity for all is a reality and not just a slogan.”
