Sunak hit by claim of hard evidence he ignored 'critical risk' to schools amid Tory meltdown

Sign up to receive the email View from Westminster for Expert Analytics straight to your inboxReceive our free View from Westminster emailPlease enter a valid email addressPlease enter a valid email addressI would like to receive offers, events and updates by email day of The Independent. Read our privacy notice{{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Rishi Sunak was dragged into the center of the collapsing schools scandal on Monday as he was accused of 'enormous culpability' in the crisis as Tories appeared descend into a "'wacky blame game'".

The Prime Minister has been forced to deny claims by a former senior civil servant that he ignored warnings about a 'critical risk to life by cutting funding for school repairs while he was still chancellor.

And in an extraordinary outburst that left Number 10 reeling, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said others had 'sat idly' during the crisis and that she had made a "f *****". *good job".

Mr Sunak and Ms Keegan struggled to answer questions about the scale of the RAAC problem - but both admitted that hundreds more schools in England could be hit by the concrete collapse that all 104 buildings have already been forced to close.

It happened as:

Senior Tory MPs told The Independent that Sunak should find “new funds” for school repairs.Ms Keegan insisted that she was not referring to Tory colleagues when she said others had “sat on their c***s' Labor began campaigning on social media over Ms Keegan's quote - saying the Tories 'want you to thank them' for collapsing schools. The government declined to say when a full The list of affected schools will finally be released.Ms Keegan revealed that 1,500 schools have yet to respond to a survey to find out if they are equipped with RAAC (autoclaved cellular concrete)

Jonathan Slater, former top official of the Department of Education (DfE). , revealed that officials were aware of the need to rebuild between 300 and 400 schools a year while Mr Sunak was in the Treasury from 2019 to 2022.

Mr. Slater told the BBC of his 'frustration' when the Treasury said it would only provide $100 a year before Mr Sunak cut it further in 2021 to just $50 a year.

< p>The former permanent secretary said he was "absolutely amazed at the decision taken by the chancellor". When asked who the chancellor was, he replied, "Rishi Sunak. build more new schools