Schools should receive extra funding when Britain leaves the EU because the country will no longer have to send “vast sums of money” to Brussels, Theresa May has said.

However, a headteachers’ union has leapt on the prime minister’s words, saying that schools need money now. 

In an interview with the BBC this afternoon, Ms May was asked whether there would be a “Brexit dividend” when the country leaves the EU next year.

She replied: “Of course, when we leave the European Union, we’ll no longer be spending vast sums of money, year in and year out, sending that money to the European Union, so there will be money available here in the UK to spend on our priorities like the NHS and schools.”

Extra funding ‘will be too late’

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT heads’ union, said he welcomed “the fact that the tide is turning on school funding”. 

However, he said that “waiting until we have left the EU to increase school funding is just too late”.

“The children in the education system today are the generation that will ensure the United Kingdom is a success in a post-Brexit world. To fail to provide them with the education and support they need will short-change the nation in the long term. The real-terms cuts in education funding since April 2015 have pushed school budgets to breaking point.”

He added: “There is a £2.8 billion shortfall in school funding. The UK’s children deserve better. We urgently need the government to fund schools now.”

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