Some observers of the Tory right might have wondered why the loathsome Toby Young had broken cover this week, after maintaining a low profile after being caused to resign his ill-advised appointment to the board of the new Office for Students. We now know why that was: Tobes has held on to his £90,000 a year role as director of the New Schools Network, despite that body having had very little work since the General Election.
At the time he stood down from that role at the OfS, the NEU teaching union’s joint general secretary stated “Toby Young remains, however, director of the New Schools Network - a charity which has received millions of pounds of government funding. Now that knowledge of Young’s repugnant statements are public knowledge, questions must be raised about his continuing employment in this role”. And that wasn’t the end of it.
At the start of this month, Lib Dem education spokesperson Layla Moran, tackling minister Say Gyimah in the Commons over Tobes’ appointment to the OfS, “asked whether, in light of what she called the ‘blatant cronyism’ surrounding the appointment, the government would also be assessing the money it had given to the New Schools Network, the free schools charity where Young is director”. Now we have the answer.
As the Guardian has reported, “Toby Young has held on to his taxpayer-funded post running a free schools advisory service, despite his controversial views on women and genetics, but only after there were no other applicants”. And, whisper it quietly, despite there having been very few Free School applications recently.
There was more: “Sources within the Department for Education (DfE) say ministers have reluctantly decided to reappoint the New Schools Network (NSN) - the organisation headed by Young in his £90,000-a-year role as its chief executive - to a contract to support applicants wanting to open free schools”. But it wasn’t all good news for Tobes.
“Young is likely to suffer a pay cut, with the DfE deciding to cut future grants for the NSN and refusing to support its attempts to expand into other areas, such as encouraging schools to convert to academies”. It should be a bloody big pay cut.
Why? Simples: “No successful free school applications have been announced for almost a year, and the government appears to have lost enthusiasm for the project it launched in 2011, with Young’s own West London Free School the first free school to open”. So Tobes has been getting his £90,000 a year for doing not unadjacent to sod all.
Small wonder the Government has been accused of blatant cronyism. Moreover, Tobes is not out of the woods yet: Angela Rayner has written to Theresa May accusing the ministers involved in the OfS row, Jo Johnson and Sam Gyimah, of improper behaviour, thus potentially setting off another row which could engulf him.
If only he would subject himself to those unfettered free market forces which he so loves to see unleashed on others, rather than enjoying a £90k sinecure, and a steady stream of handouts from his pals in the Press Establishment for writing reactionary tosh, eh?
Toby Young clings on - another reason not to vote Tory.
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