The outgoing shadow schools minister has warned that education secretary Gavin Williamson will need a “crash helmet” when the true cost of the government’s “grotesque” cut to school funding for the country’s poorest pupils is revealed.

Wes Streeting told Tes that the Department for Education “can’t hide forever” over the impact of the controversial change to the way pupil premium funding is allocated this year, as the extent of the damage to school budgets will become clear when official data is published in June.

The DfE has been widely condemned for its refusal to specify the amount that schools are set to lose as a result of its decision to calculate pupil premium allocations for 2021-22 based on a census from last October, and not in January, as had been expected, and when more pupils would have been eligible.

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The department previously said the information was dependent on census data - and that figures for January 2021 would be publicly available in June.

‘Stealth cut’ to pupil premium funding

But Tes revealed last month that the government had assessed the amount of money it would save through the policy shift, and was refusing to release the result because of a fear that doing so could “harm” its “reputation”.

Mr Williamson recently accused his shadow Labour counterpart, Kate Green, of moaning and complaining after she challenged him to explain the so-called “stealth cut” to school funding.

But Mr Streeting said that, while the government is currently “getting away” with “obfuscation”, it can’t “hide forever”.

In an interview with Tes prior to his appointment as the new shadow secretary of state for child poverty, Mr Streeting said that the education secretary will need a “crash helmet” when the cost to school budgets is revealed next month, as Labour is “coming for him”.

“I just think this is a national scandal,” he said.

He added: “The government is getting away with their strategy of kind of obfuscation, and withholding information is working. But they can’t hide forever.

“And in June we are going to see all of the data. I hope that Gavin Williamson is wearing a crash helmet because we’re coming for him.

“I think it is such a grotesque betrayal of children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and schools that serve them. It’d be bad in any year. I think it is just a total betrayal in this of all years.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “Pupil premium funding is expected to increase to more than £2.5 billion next year, and per-pupil rates are unchanged - so a typical school will see an increase in its pupil premium allocations this year compared to last. Any pupil who becomes eligible after the October census will attract funding in the following year.

“On top of this, we have provided a £14 billion increase in school funding over three years - the biggest uplift in a decade - and school leaders can target our ambitious recovery funding, worth £1.7 billion, towards supporting disadvantaged pupils.”