Keegan says nothing more important than safety of children and staff as she makes statement on crumbling concrete Keegan starts by saying nothing is more important than the safety of children and staff. When the government knows there is a risk, it takes immediate action, she says. She says she responded to recent cases, including one emerging only at the end of the school holidays. Most schools in England are unaffected by Raac, she says. She says 52 schools and colleges have mitigations in place. Another 104 schools were last week advised to take measures to contain the risk from Raac. Most of these will remain open, because only part of the school is affected. The government is taking a “deliberately cautious” approach, she says. She says England has a better understanding of where Raac is present in schools “than most other counries”. Once mitigations are in place, the government will publish a list of schools affected. That will happen this week, she says, with details of mitigations in place. After that, updates will be published as new cases are identified, and cases are resolved. She says this will include information about the number of pupils doing remote learning. She says in most cases so far disruption to learning has only lasted a matter of days. Summary Here’s a roundup of the key developments: Keir Starmer has completed what is likely to be a final shadow cabinet reshuffle before a general election, keeping his most senior lineup the same but making lots of other promotions and demotions. Starmer’s long-awaited shadow cabinet reshuffle proved more widespread than some had predicted. Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor’s verdict says it shows Keir Starmer is ruthless. Gillian Keegan has apologised after being caught swearing on camera while expressing frustration about the crumbling concrete crisis in schools, claiming that “everyone else has sat on their arse” while she tried to fix the problem. In a seemingly unguarded moment after a TV interview, the education secretary was filmed lamenting that nobody had praised her for doing a “fucking good job”. Downing Street has insisted that “hundreds, not thousands” of schools are likely to be affected by crumbling concrete panels, as the focus shifted to Rishi Sunak’s role in the crisis when he was chancellor. As Sunak struggled to get a grip on an issue, which has caused dismay and chaos as millions of pupils in English schools start the new academic year, the prime minister insisted ministers had acted “as swiftly as possible” once new information emerged about the risks in schools built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac). In his TV clip this morning Rishi Sunak dismissed suggestions that he did not fund the school repair programme properly when he was chancellor. “If you look at what we have been doing over the previous decade, that’s completely in line with what we have always done,” he said. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank has published a briefing note today saying that capital spending on schools in England over the past decade has been low. The Welsh education minister, Jeremy Miles, has hit out at the UK government’s handling of the Raac school building safety crisis. He said a Welsh government official attended a working group on Raac established by the UK government’s Cabinet Office on 24 August. No new evidence about Raac risks or its management were raised at that meeting. Sir Gavin Williamson will have to apologise to the Commons and undergo behavioural training after having been found to have bullied his Conservative colleague Wendy Morton in a series of text messages in 2022. The former cabinet minister was found to have abused his power when he sent Morton the messages in September 2022 complaining about not getting a seat at the queen’s funeral. The messages included Williamson telling Morton, who was then chief whip: “Well let’s see how many more times you fuck us all over. There is a price for everything.” We are closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us and for all the emails and comments. Gavin Williamson apologises "fully and unreservedly" for bullying former Tory chief whip Wendy Morton Gavin Williamson has apologised for bullying former Tory chief whip Wendy Morton. He said he apologised “fully and unreservedly” and said he will do his “utmost to ensure this does not happen again”. Williamson told the Commons: During this exchange I used intemperate and inappropriate language which I regret and I apologised for shortly after. My behaviour led to a complaint, the complaint was initially dismissed by the commissioner for Parliamentary Standards, however this decision was appealed and subsequently reversed by the independent expert panel I accept the decision that my conduct constituted a breach of the bullying and harassment policy, and have since reflected on my behaviour. I reiterate my apology made to the complainant following the breach. I apologise to them again now and I apologise to the House fully and unreservedly. I will do my utmost to ensure this does not happen again. Former top civil servant and partygate investigator Sue Gray has started her new job. The health secretary Steve Barclay has told the Commons he is exploring introducing Martha’s Rule – where patients who believe their concerns are not being taken seriously by medical staff would be given the right to seek an urgent second opinion – in the UK. Barclay said he has asked his department and the NHS to look at whether it can introduce the measures in a bid to improve patient safety. Martha’s Rule is named after Martha Mills died aged 13 in 2021 after failures to identify and properly treat a case of sepsis that developed while she was in King’s College hospital in London. In 2022, a coroner ruled that Martha would have survived had doctors identified the warning signs and transferred her to intensive care earlier. Her parents are calling on NHS England to urgently put in place “Martha’s rule”, which they said would “effectively formalise the idea of asking for a second opinion, from a different team outside the team currently looking after you if you feel you are not being listened to”. Barclay told the Commons: We are exploring introducing Martha’s rule to the UK. Martha’s Rule would be similar to Queensland’s system called Ryan’s Rule. It is a three-step process that allows patients or their families a clinical review from a doctor or a nurse if their condition is deteriorating or not improving as expected. Ryan’s Rule has saved lives in Queensland and I’ve asked my department and the NHS to look into whether similar measures can improve safety here in the UK. Labour"s reshuffle - verdict from commentariat Turning back to the Labour reshuffle, here are some assessments on what it means from commentators. Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says it shows Keir Starmer is ruthless. Labour reshuffle nutshell: Blairite re-conquest (McFadden, Kendall, Kyle promotion); all about election (three heavyweights - McFadden, Thomas-Symonds and Ashworth all in generalist Cab office shadow roles); humiliating demotion for Nandy (they feared she would reject it); bigger jobs for Rayner (but who is holding who hostage in Starmer/Rayner relationship? Asks one source); important Northern Ireland job for veteran Benn (they wondered if he would take it); there are now two Mcfaddens at the heart of the Starmer campaign team; in Starmer’s list of shadow cabinet precedence, education is his most important priority (after Treasury); my goodness Starmer is ruthless Rachel Cunliffe at the New Statesman says Angela Rayner has been sidelined without being demoted. She says: While Rayner’s new role gives her greater visibility, it also distances her from the command centre of Starmer’s shadow cabinet. Relations between Starmer and his deputy have been strained during his leadership – in May 2021, a botched attempt to demote Rayner backfired and resulted in her being handed a panoply of new roles. The dynamic has clearly changed since then, as Labour has risen in the polls, and Starmer has established himself as a prime minister-in-waiting. Today’s reshuffle has allowed Starmer to sideline Rayner without explicitly demoting her – in fact, he has sweetened the pill by making her shadow deputy prime minister. But the Labour leader’s balancing act could also prove risky: the levelling-up brief will give Rayner ample opportunity to challenge the party’s spending plans and build alliances with powerful regional figures, such as Labour’s metro mayors, who share her frustrations with Rachel Reeves’s fiscal conservatism. Morgan Jones at LabourList says Pat McFadden’s “continued centrality to whatever Starmerism is is one of the ways to easily tag this reshuffle as a political shift to the right”. He says: Given the general political tenor of the reshuffle, you get the sense that were it not for her independent mandate as deputy and strong connection with the unions, Rayner would be sliding down the ranks alongside Nandy. Sam Coates in a blog for Sky News says Starmer feels it has gone well. Most of all, Sir Keir will be relieved it is over. In May 2021, his first big reshuffle went awry when a series of figures from Ms Rayner downwards refused to move and he had to back down. Asked how it felt, the Labour leader told me: “I was really pleased that we started at nine o’clock this morning. We’d finished by half past 12. And everybody’s pleased with the position they’ve now got in the shadow cabinet. I’m very, very pleased with this reshuffle.” The body language suggests he was indeed happy with the result. And Sunder Katwala from the British Future thinktank says the reshuffle shows that Labour is strong on gender equality at the top, but that it cannot quite match the Tory cabinet for ethnic diversity. Shadow Cabinet confirms that Labour is strong on gender balance in politics (15 women out of 31; compared to 8 out of 23 of the Sunak Cabinet, or 9 out of 31 attending Cabinet) but somewhat weaker on ethnic diversity than the current government, especially in senior roles. That’s all from me for today. My colleague Nicola Slawson is now taking over. Mark Francois (Con) tells Keegan that what he is being told by the DfE does not always match what he is being told by schools in Essex about what is actually happening to pupils. He says it is important that, when the list of schools affected is published, it should be accurate. Back in the Commons, Labour’s Jess Phillips asks if a school in Birmingham due to face an Ofsted inspection this week will still face inspection, even though teachers have had to spent the last few days completely revising their timetables because of a Raac problem. Keegan asks Phillips to write to her about this case. She says Ofsted is normally willing to delay inspections in cases like this. No 10 says Keegan right to apologise for her TV outburst Downing Street said Gillian Keegan was right to apologise for her “fucking good job” remark. (See 3.55pm.) Asked about what she said, the PM’s spokesperson told journalists at the afternoon lobby briefing. I think that the language used obviously is not acceptable. It is right that the education secretary has apologised for that. But at the front of parents’ minds will be the situation in their schools and I think that is what they will want to hear more about. Vicky Ford (Con) says it is important not to frighten children. She says MPs should not present the situation as more dangerous than it is. Keegan agrees. In most cases, impact is minimal, she says. Labour’s Dame Diana Johnson says, if the DfE is short of cash, Keegan could install a swear box in the department. That is the first reference so far to Keegan’s TV outburst earlier. Keegan jokes that, as a scouser, she has a higher bar for bad language than others. Labour"s Ben Bradshaw implies Sunak would have taken Raac problem more seriously if his children attended state schools Labour’s Ben Bradshaw asks how big a factor was it, when Rishi Sunak cut the school repair programme, that he and most of his cabinet colleagues do not send their children to state schools. Keegan says Bradshaw is wrong to say spending on repairs was cut. It remains on the same scale as what was announced in 2020, she says. She ignores the point about private education. Keegan claims Scottish government"s approach to Raac in school buildings "worrying" Carol Monaghan, the SNP’s education spokesperson at Westminster, asks about reports that the Treasury is briefing there will be no new money available to the DfE to deal with the problem. Keegan says Scotland is not planning to close schools with Raac in their buildings. That is “worrying”, she says. Dame Maria Miller (Con) asks what happens with suspected cases of Raac. There are two in her Basingstoke constituency, she says. How long does it take for these problems to be resolved. Keegan says, where there are suspected cases, they will be surveyed in the next two weeks. In about two thirds of cases, there is no need for action.