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The Leave campaign say the EU is to blame for all the ills in our schools and hospitals. It’s not.

The problems we face - a national shortage of teachers, a school places’ crisis and falling school budgets - are all down to Tory mismanagement, not the EU.

Just look at the man who makes this argument the loudest, Michael Gove.

He’s playing the blame game because he failed our families as Education Secretary.

This is the man who attacked hard working teachers as “the blob”, who labelled them “enemies of promise”.

(Image: Reuters)

He caused the teacher retention crisis, driving teachers out of the classroom and failed year after year to recruit enough new teachers.

Read more: The North 'has the most to gain by staying in EU'

It is Michael Gove who caused the school places crisis as well.

His pet Free School project wasted millions building schools in areas where they weren’t needed.

His first act as Education Secretary was to slash the capital budget needed to expand and build new schools.

There are legitimate concerns about migration on the schools system but let’s put it into context: less than 5 per-cent of new places needed are for children of EU migrants.

This should have been better managed by Tory Education Ministers without a doubt.

(Image: Chris Ratcliffe/Getty)

But the vast majority of pressure on the school places system is coming from a rising UK birthrate and the fact the Tories have taken away powers for local areas to properly manage school places.

The real threat to our schools is leaving the EU.

What has become increasingly clear over recent weeks is that we will see more austerity and spending cuts if we leave.

Read more:Tory Brexit MP Sarah Wollaston switches sides to Remain

We’ve seen who pays the price over the last six years of the Tories. It’s not Michael Gove and his chums: it’s our front line public services, hard-working families and Labour communities which bear the brunt.

Don’t let those same politicians kid you into thinking the same thing won’t happen again when the economy takes a hit after leaving the EU.

I wouldn’t trust a single word Michael Gove has to say on schools.