Leamington MP asks Rishi Sunak if he will step in over Warwickshire SEND comments outrage

Warwick and Leamington MP Matt Western has today asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak if he would step in over the outrage caused by Warwickshire County Councillors who made controversial comments over SEND provision.

Former cabinet member for children and families Jeff Morgan (Bulkington & Whitestone) and Conservative colleagues Brian Hammersley (Bedworth Central) and Clare Golby (Arbury) came under fire for comments made during last month’s meeting of the Children & Young People’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

Cllr Morgan questioned whether some children put forward for SEND assessments were “just really badly behaved”, Cllr Hammersley queried whether a surge in demand was down to “something in the water”, while Cllr Golby was criticised for referring to social media pages where “families are swapping tips on how to get their children diagnosed”. Her point was part of her wider set of questions over whether some SEND conditions may be conflated with wider societal issues.

The comments were heard by parents of SEND children across the country and tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for the three to resign.

The backlash that followed has also resulted in police being enlisted to protect the councillors from abuse and threats.

The trio have been stripped of their roles on the panel which they made the comments on but have so far not been axed from the county council altogether or suspended by the Conservatives, the party in charge of the authority.

At PMQs this morning, Mr Western said: “At a recent meeting of Warwickshire County Council, children with special educational needs were described by some county councillors as requiring, and I quote, ‘some form of strict correction’ or, were, and I quote ‘just really badly behaved kids’ - other inappropriate language was used.

“Parents of SEND children across the country have been outraged by this – 30,000 of them have signed a petition calling for the resignation of those councillors

“Will he [the Prime Minister] condemn the Conservative councillors’ language and urge them to do the right thing and resign?”

In response, Mr Sunak said: “I haven’t seen the details of those comments on this issue but, more generally, the Government does have a strong track record in supporting those with disabilities.

“It’s important that children with special education needs do receive the right support in the right place at the right time.

“We’re seeing increased funding for SEND by more than 60 per cent over this Parliament to over £10 billion and most recently the education and health departments are piloting a new project to improve access to specialty support in mainstream primary schools in order for these children to get all of the support and opportunities they deserve.”

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