Ministers have opposed a Labour bid for the publication of documents showing what advice the prime minister was given about RAAC while he was chancellor.
Labour put forward the vote on releasing all related correspondence ahead of the 2020 and 2021 spending reviews and the 2022 spring and autumn statements as it led a Commons debate on Wednesday.
The party forced the vote after former Department for Education (DfE) permanent secretary Jonathan Slater claimed on Monday that Rishi Sunak had halved the number of schools to be rebuilt in the Schools Rebuilding Programme in his 2021 spending review.
Schools minister Nick Gibb also implied on Tuesday that the prime minister had prioritised other things over calls for more funding for school buildings.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan told MPs it would be “inaccurate, incomplete, and inappropriate to disclose the details requested of the sensitive negotiations between His Majesty’s Treasury and individual Government departments”.
“Inaccurate because it would only show part of the picture of a complex decision-making process that takes place between multiple departments, multiple ministers, officials and other individuals with varying priorities,” she added.
“Incomplete because such a process has to look across the board at priorities and trade-offs for all Government departments to ensure we can deliver for everyone, yet this motion focuses on only one.
“Inappropriate because it would be categorically in breach of the longstanding tradition and expectation of confidential and often commercially sensitive information not being disclosed into the public domain, and of allowing officials to give full and frank advice to ministers.”
The motion was also opposed by Education Select Committee chair Robin Walker, although he did say a “proper process of scrutiny” needed to take place concerning decisions made over RAAC.
As she opened the debate, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “The decisions taken by the Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, have led us to the chaos families are experiencing up and down this country today.
“Conservative ministers, including the current schools minister [Nick Gibb], did away with Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme which would have rebuilt every secondary school in this country.”
She added: “Today’s debate quite simply is about responsibility, and whether the Prime Minister will come clean, about the allegation that he knew the risks, that he was warned, that he was told and that is the issue in the motion before the House today.”
