So we’re witnessing the formation of the most leftist education manifesto for more than a generation.
Confirmation that Labour would go into any forthcoming election with a genuinely radical policy slate came this morning with news that the party would abolish Ofsted.
It has hardly been a secret that the NEU teachers’ union has been a big influence on both shadow secretary Angela Rayner and Corbyn - indeed former NUT general secretary Christine Blower is an adviser - but these changes signal the defeat of more moderate thinking, which hadn’t always been ignored.
Behind the scenes in Westminster, Rayner’s inner circle has consulted far more widely than one might have imagined, something that was perhaps best illustrated by her nuanced position on academisation at conference in 2018.
But the news about Sats - and now Ofsted - suggests this informal battle for the future of Labour’s thinking on schools is being won by the unions.
And the question to which we will soon know the answer is this: is there electoral appetite for education policy as drafted by the NEU?
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