Keir Starmer WILL fine parents for taking kids out of school as he’s grilled by The Sun’s brilliant cabinet
PARENTS who let their children skip school to go on sunshine breaks will still be fined under Labour.
On the premier episode of The Sun’s Never Mind The Ballots, Sir Keir Starmer said under his watch there would be no financial let-off for parents who wanted to take their kids out of the classroom.
He was responding to concerns raised by The Sun Cabinet’s Education Secretary, Carrie Ann Booth, who is also an ex-science teacher.
She noted that holiday hotspots hike prices outside of term time, making getaways increasingly unaffordable for working people and their children.
But Sir Keir said: “I feel that we should have our kids in school every day – it’s very important for them.
“It’s the base camp for kids as they go forward in life.
“We’ve got to keep the rule that you have to be in school on school days.”
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Under new rules parents can be slapped with fines of £60 if their kids miss school without a good reason.
The fee gets bumped to £120 if it isn’t paid within 28 days.
It comes as figures show as absenteeism has reached record levels since the pandemic.
Over 150,000 kids are missing more than 50 per cent of their classes, according to Department for Education figures.
There are also 1.6 million children who are persistently absent, missing more than 10 per cent of school.
In the no holds barred interview Sir Keir took a pounding from Sun readers.
The wannabe PM refused to commit to protecting the triple lock for 12 million pensioners – warning there were tough decisions ahead.
And he warned taxes would go up under Labour – but vowed to protect Britain’s hardest workers who are already “overburdened”.
He also admitted he never believed Jeremy Corbyn would win when he told the public to vote for him – attempting to bat away accusations of dishonesty.
The Labour boss also confessed that he was paid to defend terrorist group Hiz-but-tahrir, but said he had no regrets representing “wrong ‘uns” as a lawyer.
He defended a slew of policy u-turns since becoming Labour leader on The Sun’s new political show NEVER MIND THE BALLOTS – while he dodged questions on trans, taking drugs and his sex life.
Quizzed why he had torn up so many of his promises in the past, Sir Keir insisted he is being honest with voters now.
But he warned: “I’ve got a choice to make with the electorate, which is do I be up front before the election about what we actually can afford and what we can’t or do I pretend we can deliver something which I know we actually can’t.”
Confronted with polling data that showed many Brits saw him as untrustworthy, Sir Keir insisted: “I’m in the camp of saying look, what I don’t want to have is a situation where, after the election, we are breaking our promises.”
In news that will rile pensioners, the Labour chief repeatedly refused to commit to protecting the triple lock, that sees pensions rise by inflation or wage rate every year.
He warned: “Obviously, we’ll have to see what the state of the economy is as we go into the election, we will publish all of our plans as we go in and answer that question, but I believe in the triple lock.”
Starmer also appeared to u-turn again on his views on gender and was once again unable to define what a woman is as he insisted the whole issue has to be “treated with respect”.