Michelle Donelan formerly served as Higher and Further Education Minister and briefly as Education Secretary, and is MP for Chippenham.
Last week, many of us on the Conservative green benches had to search our souls and make difficult choices. Now that particular rollercoaster ride is over, we must come together and show that we deserve to run this great nation of ours.
To do that we need a vision of hope, where we are responsible but also show people how we will be on their side, make work pay, reduce the size of the state and let people live their lives as they want. We need to reclaim our identity and own our conservative values: a small state, reduce the tax burden, offer choice, foster opportunities and stand by our belief in the individual.
Politicians will talk about priorities in the next few weeks. In my opinion, the first priority should be ensuring that education remains the engine of upward social mobility and economic growth. After all, education is the beating heart of any government.
The Prime Minister delivered a phenomenal mandate for us to transform our nation for the better. To get things done in politics you need to bring people with you, and in 2019 under his leadership we of course did exactly that.
I used the opportunities it gave us in education to drive forward our skills revolution, improve quality and regain value for money in our Universities, as well as build the world’s first major lifelong learning system.
However, things haven’t been plain sailing and the revelations around the handling of Chris Pincher’s appointment were damning and, as we now know, proved fatal.
At the early stage only two ministers had gone and it looked like either we would stumble on for a few more weeks leading to a confidence vote… or Boris Johnson would once again defy the odds, in which case the country would need a functioning Department for Education.
As the longest-standing education minister who had already been attending Cabinet, I had a moral duty to prioritise the children, young people, teachers, and lecturers across the land as we approached exam results day and ahead of the summer holidays when vulnerable children would be out of school.
I’ve always made it clear for as long as I can recall, my burning passion is education so of course I wanted the role; education was the theme of my maiden speech, it led me into the Education Select Committee and it is why I served nearly three years – the last ten months attending Cabinet – in the Department for Education.
I also knew that deep down, I was prepared to make the tough call if the absolute worst happened and the Prime Minister neither gained the stability required nor left voluntarily.
In the hours and day after I had taken the role the situation changed dramatically – it went much quicker than anyone could have imagined. It became quite clear very quickly that we could no longer govern like this.
I went to see the Prime Minister and spent quarter of an hour with him; I was candid, which he deserved. Unfortunately he couldn’t see how the situation was worlds apart from the day before. He wanted to fight on; that’s his character, you wouldn’t expect anything else, but it had simply gone too far. I told him staying would cause damage to our party and country over days. The country I love and the party I have supported all of my adult life.
I was worried that too few would be left in government to deal with any crises or disasters. A terrifying thought which hadn’t even crossed my mind in the previous twenty four hours.
I believe in loyalty to my core, but as I explained to the Prime Minister, my loyalty to the country and my party will always come first.
I gave him the night and was incredibly conflicted, still wanting to safeguard the interests of young people and not add to the chaos. But, in the end, I came to the conclusion the next day, that I had to go for the good of the country. I knew it was important to do the right thing no matter how it may look to some or how painful it would be to leave behind the education brief.
I also knew that unless more of the Cabinet went, then the deadlock would continue. His firm commitment to stay the day before had made that apparent. I knew having the newly-appointed person resign so soon would help to send a strong message, and reinforce the sacrifices that so many of my colleagues had made.
So where do we go now? Well I think we are all deeply saddened by how this unravelled but now the important thing is to use our landslide majority and work together as a team. No one can or should take away from the successes of this Prime Minister such as the vaccine programme, the handling of the Ukraine war, and getting a Brexit over the line (no mean feat, I remember the head-banging times of being a whip in the May government).
One thing is for sure the next prime minister must prioritise education and skills for the sake of our economy. The key way to tackle our productivity gap and our labour shortages is through skills. They need to recognise that education is an incredibly powerful economic and social tool, which if used correctly could help to answer some of the major challenges facing our country in the coming months.
Let us go forward bold and brave, owning our conservative identity, as the party of opportunity and possibility – and of course, as the party of hope. Let us give people the chance to change their course in life through education. It would be wrong of us to turn our backs on their aspirations.
Michelle Donelan formerly served as Higher and Further Education Minister and briefly as Education Secretary, and is MP for Chippenham.
Last week, many of us on the Conservative green benches had to search our souls and make difficult choices. Now that particular rollercoaster ride is over, we must come together and show that we deserve to run this great nation of ours.
To do that we need a vision of hope, where we are responsible but also show people how we will be on their side, make work pay, reduce the size of the state and let people live their lives as they want. We need to reclaim our identity and own our conservative values: a small state, reduce the tax burden, offer choice, foster opportunities and stand by our belief in the individual.
Politicians will talk about priorities in the next few weeks. In my opinion, the first priority should be ensuring that education remains the engine of upward social mobility and economic growth. After all, education is the beating heart of any government.
The Prime Minister delivered a phenomenal mandate for us to transform our nation for the better. To get things done in politics you need to bring people with you, and in 2019 under his leadership we of course did exactly that.
I used the opportunities it gave us in education to drive forward our skills revolution, improve quality and regain value for money in our Universities, as well as build the world’s first major lifelong learning system.
However, things haven’t been plain sailing and the revelations around the handling of Chris Pincher’s appointment were damning and, as we now know, proved fatal.
At the early stage only two ministers had gone and it looked like either we would stumble on for a few more weeks leading to a confidence vote… or Boris Johnson would once again defy the odds, in which case the country would need a functioning Department for Education.
As the longest-standing education minister who had already been attending Cabinet, I had a moral duty to prioritise the children, young people, teachers, and lecturers across the land as we approached exam results day and ahead of the summer holidays when vulnerable children would be out of school.
I’ve always made it clear for as long as I can recall, my burning passion is education so of course I wanted the role; education was the theme of my maiden speech, it led me into the Education Select Committee and it is why I served nearly three years – the last ten months attending Cabinet – in the Department for Education.
I also knew that deep down, I was prepared to make the tough call if the absolute worst happened and the Prime Minister neither gained the stability required nor left voluntarily.
In the hours and day after I had taken the role the situation changed dramatically – it went much quicker than anyone could have imagined. It became quite clear very quickly that we could no longer govern like this.
I went to see the Prime Minister and spent quarter of an hour with him; I was candid, which he deserved. Unfortunately he couldn’t see how the situation was worlds apart from the day before. He wanted to fight on; that’s his character, you wouldn’t expect anything else, but it had simply gone too far. I told him staying would cause damage to our party and country over days. The country I love and the party I have supported all of my adult life.
I was worried that too few would be left in government to deal with any crises or disasters. A terrifying thought which hadn’t even crossed my mind in the previous twenty four hours.
I believe in loyalty to my core, but as I explained to the Prime Minister, my loyalty to the country and my party will always come first.
I gave him the night and was incredibly conflicted, still wanting to safeguard the interests of young people and not add to the chaos. But, in the end, I came to the conclusion the next day, that I had to go for the good of the country. I knew it was important to do the right thing no matter how it may look to some or how painful it would be to leave behind the education brief.
I also knew that unless more of the Cabinet went, then the deadlock would continue. His firm commitment to stay the day before had made that apparent. I knew having the newly-appointed person resign so soon would help to send a strong message, and reinforce the sacrifices that so many of my colleagues had made.
So where do we go now? Well I think we are all deeply saddened by how this unravelled but now the important thing is to use our landslide majority and work together as a team. No one can or should take away from the successes of this Prime Minister such as the vaccine programme, the handling of the Ukraine war, and getting a Brexit over the line (no mean feat, I remember the head-banging times of being a whip in the May government).
One thing is for sure the next prime minister must prioritise education and skills for the sake of our economy. The key way to tackle our productivity gap and our labour shortages is through skills. They need to recognise that education is an incredibly powerful economic and social tool, which if used correctly could help to answer some of the major challenges facing our country in the coming months.
Let us go forward bold and brave, owning our conservative identity, as the party of opportunity and possibility – and of course, as the party of hope. Let us give people the chance to change their course in life through education. It would be wrong of us to turn our backs on their aspirations.