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A top Tory has been accused of treating children as “guinea pigs” after she claimed allowing some children to fail at school is fine in the interests of progress.

Unions accused the government of putting ‘ideology above the interests of children’s education’ in light of the cabinet minister’s comments.

Blundering Cabinet Minister Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said she believed in “trying things” and was relaxed about free schools that “haven’t done as well or “cases where pilots haven’t worked”.

Former Education Minister Ms Truss said at an event at the Social Market Foundation think tank and hosted by hosted by Edelman UK PR firm: “With freedom there does come risk. We have to acknowledge that.

“There are free schools that haven’t done as well, or there have been cases where pilots haven’t worked.”

She was asked about the difference between New Labour’s academies programme and the Tories’ academies and free schools.

Mrs Truss said the “difference is the level of freedom we give.”

She added: “I believe in trying those things and seeing what impact they can have, rather than being risk averse and not trying them.”

Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education, hit out at the Tory’s comments: “Liz Truss seems to think it is ok to gamble with our children’s futures but our kids deserve better than being used as guinea pigs in a failed experiment.

“The government bet the house on free schools and we’ve been left to pay the tab.

(Image: PA)

“The children who lost their chance of an excellent education aren’t going to get much comfort from the Tories saying it was a risk worth taking in the name of their vanity projects.

“When it comes to education there is no risk worth taking which is why the next Labour Government will create a National Education Service, that will ensure every single child has a good school place, as we transform Britain into a country for the many, and not the few.”

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Liz Truss’s statement amounts to an admission that the Government has put its pursuit of ideology above the interests of children’s education.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

“This approach is both reckless and wasteful and has resulted in real harm being done to communities where schools have had to close. The reality is that neither academies nor free schools have generated improvements across the system.

“Indeed, they have done the opposite in many cases.

“This huge waste of resources is shameful when so many schools have barely enough money to pay their staff and resource students’ learning.”