Conservatives warn Labour not to put votes before fairness on education. Conservative Parliamentary Candidates from across Worcestershire have expressed their concern at reports that the Government could be planning to shelve an important review into fairer funding in order to win votes in Labour’s heartlands. Conservatives have been campaigning for many years for fairer funding for Worcestershire’s schools, which are among the worst funded in the whole country. Worcestershire is currently tenth from the bottom of the league of 151 local authorities for per pupil funding and the average school in the authority receives £739 per pupil less than schools in neighbouring Birmingham. Conservatives have announced plans to shift spending to a national per pupil funding formula. Per-pupil funding would include an extra amount for poorer children so that schools will work particularly hard to attract them. Last November, local Conservative candidates, Harriett Baldwin, PPC for West Worcestershire, Robin Walker PPC for Worcester and Mark Garnier PPC for Wyre Forest attended the conference of F40, the group that has been campaigning for a better deal for the worst funded authorities and heard a Labour minister promise a review before the election, at the start of 2010. This week F40 wrote, urging people to keep up the pressure for a review and pointing to a number of issues affecting underfunded schools, saying “There had been an expectation that a consultation document regarding the funding formula review would have been issued in January. We are still waiting for its appearance, but keep getting the message that it will be announced “shortly”. We certainly hope that will be the case.” The Times Education Supplement last week reported that the consultation into fairer funding might not be published until after the election. Ivan Ould, chair of the F40 group was quoted saying "There could be something unpleasant in this review: some areas might gain while others lose out. There could be things which are an electoral liability. It's going to be a really tight election with possibly a hung Parliament. The current government is going to want to hold in abeyance any bad news. They are not going to want to put out anything which will upset people." Malcolm Trobe, policy director of the Association of School and College Leaders, was also quoted saying "Our initial understanding was that it would be released in early January or at least by February… We are very disappointed we have not seen the proposals yet." Today the candidates released a joint statement saying: “Labour claim to be fighting an election campaign based on “a future fair for all” but if they fail to deliver progress on fairer funding, then that promise will have fallen at the first hurdle. It is an outrage that after thirteen years of a government that promised to reduce the inequalities in the funding formula, the gaps are wider than ever and it would be appalling if this government, which is supposed to be looking after the interests of the whole country, put their need to hold onto votes in the Labour heartlands before fairness and justice in funding. People in Worcestershire who have suffered a shortfall in funding for too long will know exactly how highly Labour values them if they fail to deliver this review. Our party will create a fairer system based on per pupil funding but in the meantime it would be totally unacceptable for Labour to break their promise of a review.” www.f40.org.uk Photo: Mark Garnier, Harriet Baldwin and Robin Walker at the F40 conference.