I fear that Labour's special needs revolution will instead be a catastrophic letdown | John Harris

"Where is this government heading, and who is now in charge? Keir Starmer looks even weaker than he did a week ago, uncoupled from the aides who wrote his scripts and picked his fights, and only still in his job because the cabinet and parliamentary Labour party stared into a chaotic immediate future and decided not to pounce for now."

"Any day now, the government will publish the education white paper containing its plans for sweeping reform of England's provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, or Send. Amid rising fears about current and future costs, that document will shine light not just on the government's thinking about the system it wants to change, but even bigger questions about Labour's views on disability and human difference, and the relationship between families and the state."

"Education secretary Bridget Phillipson and her colleagues want to maximise the numbers of Send kids taught at mainstream schools, driven by a staunch belief in the ideal of inclusion, and the slightly less idealistic imperative to cut spending on comparatively expensive special school places, and hack down the transport bills resulting from getting thousands of kids to scarce placements miles away from where they live."

Keir Starmer appears politically weakened and remains in post because Labour ministers and MPs chose not to force an immediate challenge. Two imminent byelections in Gorton and Denton increase short-term pressure on the government. An education white paper on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will set out sweeping reforms aimed at increasing mainstream inclusion and reducing reliance on costly special school placements and transport. The plan includes a 10-year, £3.7bn investment in mainstream secondary facilities intended to host inclusion bases. Rising concerns about current and future costs raise risks of internal backlash that could destabilise the administration if proposals misfire.

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