Stephen Morgan MP used PMQs to raise the issue of school budget cuts and a growing infant hunger in Portsmouth.

Today at Prime Minister’s Question Time, MP for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, raised serious concerns over school cuts and the number of children using food banks in his city.

Portsmouth’s schools will have lost over £3million under this Government by 2019 and class sizes continue to grow. Local teachers and parents have had to provide basic resources such as pencils and glue-sticks in the face of a growing funding gap.

Furthermore, according to the latest available data from the Trussell Trust, approximately 40,000 children in the South East are reliant on food banks.

Mr Morgan asked the PM: ‘If the Prime Minister was a teacher who’d been under a pay cap for 8 years, what would she buy a struggling child in one of my city’s classrooms – a text book or a square meal?’ The PM responded by saying that the amount of money in schools was greater than ever before, a claim refuted by the NEU, NAC, and NUT.

Commenting, Stephen Morgan MP said:

 ‘Portsmouth continues to be left behind by this Government. Class sizes are up, but schools have had their budgets repeatedly cut. Yet, the Prime Minister continues to recycle her line claiming the opposite.

Her Education Secretary has already been reprimanded by the statistics watchdog for saying school spending is going up – just because you repeat something doesn’t make it true.

 But Portsmouth’s teachers and parents know the reality of the Tories failure to invest in our children’s futures, and they deserve better.’

Amanda Martin, Vice-President of the NEU, added:

‘Mr Morgan is quite right to stand up for teachers and their students.The Government’s real-terms cuts to education funding have seen £2.8 billion cut from school budgets since 2015.

The Prime Minister is wrong on the facts. She must address the funding crisis urgently and not continue to ignore these very real problems.’