Boris Johnson was in Devon last week as part of the campaign trail, with several visits covered by local newspaper Devon Live

He visited Chulmleigh Academy in North Devon and was quizzed on ‘years of underfunding that rural schools…have received when compared to schools in urban areas’.

The website, Stop School Cuts, has predicted a £22.6 million funding shortfall in 2020, which is an estimated £253 per pupil. The Stop School Cuts campaign is asking local election candidates to sign up to a pledge to reverse cuts to per-pupil funding that have been implemented since 2015.

On rural school funding, Johnson commented: ‘We’re putting money in, but this new Government that I’m leading is putting even more money in. What we’re doing is we’re levelling up funding across the country, I think a 4.9% increase here in rural Devon.’

He continued: ‘We’re also doing things to help with transport, to help with communications, broadband, mobile phone not-spots – of which this seems to be one – and we’re going to get rid of them. What we want to do is to get on and level up education funding throughout the country, help rural schools.’

Labour has pledged to give schools in England an extra £10.5bn per year by 2022-23 compared to 2019-20. This compares to plans from the Conservatives to give schools £7.1bn more by that date.

The Liberal Democrats have also promised £10.5bn, but will reach this figure over a longer time period, by 2024-25.

Full articles:

Devon Live - Boris Johnson pledges 4.9% education funding increase for Devon

The i Paper - Labour pledges £10.5bn school funding boost but waters down policy to abolish private schools