Keir Starmer vows to wipe out North-South divide in faculties with ‘no youngster left behind’

Keir Starmer has vowed no child in the North will be left behind as he set his sights on inequalities plaguing schools.

In his first interview of the year, the Prime Minister said he wanted to wipe out the North-South divide in education in England, which has seen a deepening gulf in kids getting the top grades. And Mr Starmer said he would stop children “falling through the cracks” through a register of home-schooling, to ensure tragic cases like the murder of Sara Sharif never happen again.

The 10-year-old, who was subjected to a two-year campaign of torture by her father and stepmother, was removed from primary school to be home-schooled four months before she died. Speaking to the Mirror in Downing Street, the PM said this year will be about “delivery, delivery, delivery,” as he insisted Labour was on the right track after a bumpy first six months in office.

The Government has faced criticism on a number of fronts, including the cut to the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners and the decision to snub compensation calls from WASPI women who lost out due to a rise in the state pension age. Asked if he was delivering for voters who put him in No10, he said: “Yes, we were voted in to change the terrible failures of the last 14 years.”

A landmark bill to protect kids and drive up school standards will take its first step towards becoming law on Wednesday as it’s debated by MPs. It comes as the attainment gap has widened since the pandemic, with experts blaming lack of catch-up funding and cost of living issues for worsening outcomes outside London and the South East.

Last year, 72.5% of teens in London got GCSEs graded as at least 4/C, compared to the West Midlands where the pass rate was 63.1%. This is a 9.4 percentage point gap, up from 8.7 last year and 6.8 in 2019. Four out of five regions in the North and Midlands had a lower pass rate in 2024 than in 2019 – but performance improved in every region across the South.

The PM said he would commit to ensuring northern kids weren’t left behind. He said: “I’m very concerned about the disparity. I am absolutely determined that every single child, whatever their background or wherever they come from, gets the same life chances. As every parent will tell you, including myself as a parent of two children, a girl and a boy, now 14 and 16, education is at the heart of that.”

He added: “On North-South, we must drive the same standards of excellence. It must not matter where in the country you’re at school. You must have the right and the same chances. But that won’t happen unless we drive through some of these reforms.”

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes tougher regulation on teachers and a change to rules so failing schools don’t automatically become academies. He said he wouldn’t tolerate kids from the North facing worse outcomes, saying: “Those figures on North-South have got to change.”

The bill will also toughen up safeguarding protections to stop vulnerable kids disappearing from view. There will be a new register for kids who are being home-schooled and every child will have a unique identification number, while councils will also be handed greater powers.

Mr Starmer said: “That’s hugely important because what we saw and have seen, particularly during the pandemic but not only, children were withdrawn from school and they’ve not been seen since. We cannot allow that to happen. The Sara Sharif [case], a terrible, terrible situation, which we have to take measures to ensure can never be repeated in terms of home-schooling.”

Facing down critics of his decision to slap VAT on private schools, Mr Starmer said: “I want to get to a stage where it doesn’t matter whether you go to a state school or private school or whatever school you go to, you get the same chances in life.”

Parents will also be protected from sky-high uniform costs, with new rules to limit the number of branded items they have to buy. The bill also paves the way for the creation of free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England, with a year-long pilot due to begin in April.

Mr Starmer said that making people better off is the “number one priority” for the Government, followed by fixing the “busted” NHS. “People wanted that change, yes that has involved political decisions, political choices. The political choice I’ve made – and I think it does matter hugely to Mirror readers – is making sure people are better off is up there and making sure the NHS works for them.”

The PM also pointed to plans to drive up the numbers of bobbies on the beat and to tackle the small boats crisis. “Pretending that you don’t have to make difficult choices or avoiding difficult choices is what got us here in the first place,” he added.

But Mr Starmer said Brits should be hopeful that things will start changing in 2025. “As anyone knows from turning around a business or an organisation, or re-decorating their house, if you’re going to do it, do it properly.

“That means doing tough stuff early on. If it’s your house, you’ve got to strip it down. It’s going to take longer, it’s harder work. But you are going to build something that’s going to last. Same with our economy, same with the economy. As we now turn into 2025, with this delivery, delivery, delivery, then I do think that’s a more optimistic beat.”

He said he had to be honest about the terrible legacy but now people would start to see things changing. Pointing to plans to create an extra two million appointments in the NHS, he said: “As we begin to see that sort of change, I do think that brings with it hope, optimism and a sense of that better future people voted for.”