The Cross-Party Consensus for Andy Burnham's Education Policy
Michael Kane
New research from Public First finds an emerging cross-party consensus around Andy Burnham’s education policy.
In July and August, we conducted two polls of more than 2,000 UK adults and ran six focus groups of voters living in the West Midlands, five made up of supporters of each of the main parties and one of non-voters.
We found that regardless of voting intention, voters are tending towards the same education policy ideals. They want more technical education and apprenticeships, less emphasis on university pathways, and young people to be better prepared for adult working life. They think the system, as it stands, is failing on all three fronts.
Andy Burnham’s education platform speaks directly to these concerns. He has promised to roll out an MBacc-style scheme nationally, devolve education powers locally, and give technical routes equal status to academic ones, all of which tap into cross-party agreement on how best to tackle issues in the education system.
The report lays out our wider analysis in four parts:
- Education matters to voters but is not yet deciding how they vote.
- Voters feel education is failing to prepare young people for adult life.
- Burnham’s vision for education is received positively by voters across parties.
- Despite support, voters are split on whether change can be delivered.
For the education sector at large, though, this cross-party popularity around Burnham’s education messaging means that anyone with a stake in schools, colleges, or universities should be prepared to adapt.
We explore each of these findings in more detail in the full report, which you can read here.
Tables for these questions can be found here: