Responding to Conservative plans for pupils in England with poor SAT results to resit the exams, Liberal Democrat Education Minister David Laws said:

“The Tories’ plan for devastating cuts to education budgets means they have no credibility on school standards. You simply can’t improve schools by starving them of resources and burdening them with the bureaucracy of additional testing.

“The way to make sure every child starts secondary school achieving a good level of Maths and English is to invest in their early years and primary education, recruiting great teachers and getting extra support to the children who most need it.

“That’s why we need to protect the education budget, in real terms, including schools, nurseries and colleges.

“The Tories are trying to paper over the cracks in their scorched earth education plans that would undo the progress of the last five years.”