We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The Department for Education is distributing the volume, which celebrates the achievements of the UK and the Commonwealth during the 70 years of the monarch’s reign. But Left-wing backbencher Dawn Butler yesterday claimed the initiative was not “appropriate” and hit out at the “political” content of the book. The Brent Central MP wrote to Boris Johnson to demand the scrapping of the £12million scheme.

She said: “I do not feel this is an appropriate commemoration as the proposals seem to associate the Queen with political events during her reign.”

Tory MPs and royal commentators last night condemned her “mean-spirited” intervention.

Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, said: “We should be proud of the Queen’s 70-year reign. It is something we should all celebrate together. The Labour Party claims to be patriotic but is it really?”

Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering, said: “It is mean-spirited to oppose this. It is an excellent initiative by the Department for Education. There are hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren who will be thrilled to receive this book and many will keep it for the rest of their lives.

“They will be proud to read and learn about our history.”

Dickie Arbiter, a former palace press secretary, could not understand what all the fuss was about and insisted it was a good idea to celebrate the achievements of the UK and Commonwealth during the 70 years of the Queen’s reign.

He said: “What’s wrong with telling kids what’s been achieved?”

In her letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Butler wrote: “Like most people in the UK, I have a huge amount of respect for the Queen’s long record of public service, but I do not feel this is an appropriate commemoration as the proposals seem to associate the Queen with political events.

“Any controversy over the content of the book and its partial history of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign will risk embroiling her in a political debate of the Government’s making.”

She said the £12million could be better spent preventing against further spread of Covid-19 in schools, adding: “An alternative solution might be to make the proposed book an online resource.”

The plan to publish the book and give it to every primary school child in the UK was announced in September last year.

Ministers said it would teach primary school children about recent and historical events, inspirational people, landmark innovations and inventions, and a selection of our best art, design, and culture.

A Government spokesman said: “The ambition for the book is to be inclusive and speak to all children across the UK and we have been working with the publisher and the Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, for feedback on drafts of the book. It will not be a textbook for use in classes.”

The volume will also be available as an audio book in advance of the Jubilee Holiday weekend in June.

Source: Read Full Article