Labour revives attack ads claiming concrete scandal shows Rishi Sunak does not want schools to be safe

Opposition re-launches controversial campaign ad to take aim at prime minister

(Labour Party)

Labour has revived its controversial attack ads – this time using the concrete scandal to claim Rishi Sunak does not think schools should be safe.

It comes as over 100 schools were told to partially or fully shut buildings over fears that dangerous concrete could collapse, plunging the start of the new academic year into chaos.

The attack advert, posted on social media on Sunday, is a re-working of a controversial graphic pushed out to voters by the party from earlier in the year.

In the latest version, released on Sunday, the opposition pointed to cuts to school rebuilding while Mr Sunak was chancellor – provocatively asking: "Do you think your child's school should be safe?" Before answering: "Rishi Sunak doesn't."

Labour brought back its attack ads to take aim at the PM on crumbling concrete crisis (Labour Party)

In April a similar advert launched by Labour had said the PM did not think “adults convicted of sexually assaulting children should go to prison”, citing crime stats.

That advert's contents caused a furore, prompting criticism criticism over personal attacks on Mr Sunak – though Labour leader Keir Starmer stood by it.

In the new advert, Labour says that during Mr Sunak's time as chancellor "he cut spending on school rebuilding by almost half".

It added that this came after "the Tories and Lib Dems scrapped Labour's Building Schools for the Future programme in 2010".

"The Tories ignored Labour's warnings time and time again – now our children are paying the price with crumbling schools," it concludes.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Sunday took to the airwaves to defend the government's response to the problems and claimed the government had acted as quickly as possible.

He said the Treasury would spend whatever was required to make buildings safe, amid concerns that hospitals, courthouses, and other public buildings could also be affected.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer stood by previous versions of the advert (Kirsty O’Connor/PA) (PA Archive)

But ministers are yet to release a list of the affected schools despite opposition calls to do so.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said: “This crisis stems from the Conservatives’ decision to axe Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme and repeated raids on education capital budgets – chickens are now coming home to roost.

“Using already-allocated money to just make safe school buildings with RAAC is funnelling money away from other necessary work to upgrade schools and remove dangerous asbestos, storing up problems for the future.

“The Conservatives must publish everything they knew about this dangerous concrete and the list of affected schools so that this mess can begin to be fixed.