School bubbles: Dozens of Tory MPs write letter to Boris Johnson demanding classes ‘go back to normal’

Scotland's Secondary School Pupils Return To Classrooms Part-Time
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Some 48 Conservative MPs including two former cabinet ministers on Thursday wrote to Boris Johnson demanding that “all schools go back to normal”.

In a challenge to the Covid rules causing tens of thousands of pupils to miss lessons, they said it was “causing unnecessary and significant disruptions” and was “disproportionate” and “unsustainable”.

The letter was signed by former Cabinet members Esther McVey and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, plus six Commons select committee chairs. Names included Robert Halfon, the Education Committee chair, former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton and former health ministers Jackie Doyle-Price and Steve Brine.

They wrote: “Children have sacrificed so much to keep the country safe during the pandemic. … So it is vital that all schools go back to normal from 19th July when restrictions lift, even if just for the last few days of term.”

The letter was co-ordinated by pressure group UsforThem – whose founder Molly Kingsley said: “Children have been at the bottom of the heap in decision making for the last 15 months.”

The MPs also fired a warning shot against any decision in future to discriminate against children who do not get vaccinated. “No child should be denied access to the classroom on the basis of vaccination status and neither they nor their parents should be put under unwanted pressure to take medicines they do not wish to take,” said the letter.

A top scientist has said the jury is still out on jabs for children. Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and professor of child health and outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said there was not enough evidence to decide whether children should be vaccinated against covid or not.

He told BBC Breakfast: “The risk of severe harm to children is incredibly low. Vaccines are safe, but not entirely risk-free.

“From the position of personal health harm, the balance, I think, has not swayed positively one way or the other. I’m not convinced the evidence base there is strong enough to support vaccination of children because we don’t have complete safety data for the vaccines that we would want to use.”

He added that the debate over prioritising children’s health versus their education is “very, very difficult” and is “very, very nuanced”.

School bubbles could be scrapped on July 19 as part of the next step of easing Covid-19 restrictions in England, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson told the Commons on Wednesday after an increasingly heated row over the number of children missing lessons.

He said he believes pupils “would not be facing” bubble arrangements in September and hoped to end regular Covid-19 testing of schoolchildren “at the earliest and most realistic possible stage”.

Labour warned data showed 375,000 children were out of school last week as a result of coronavirus.

Shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “School leaders dread another last-minute announcement, they need time to put plans in place and their staff also desperately need a break over the summer.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, warned that “scrapping self-isolation for close contacts would be a very significant step to take, and the onus would be on the Government and public health advisors to explain … how they will maintain the safety of all members of the school community.”