THE Liberal Democrats have challenged Conservative Candidate Luke Hall’s claim to be supporting education.

Mr Hall announced yesterday that school funding cuts would be among one of his “top priorities” should he be re-elected as MP for Thornbury and Yate.

However since then, the Liberal Democrats have claimed that Mr Hall has “done nothing to defend schools” and even “backed the cuts” in the first place.

 “On January 25, there was a parliamentary vote on education cuts,” explained Cllr Ruth Davis (Liberal Democrat).

“Mr Hall voted not to call on the government to ensure all schools have the funding they need. And voted against even ‘regretting’ the cuts.”

Claire Young, the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Thornbury and Yate, has been running a campaign against the cuts for some time, and recently delivered over 35,000 letters to South Gloucestershire residents asking them to back her work.

Commenting on Luke Hall's pledge, she said: “Whilst I welcome his apparent sudden change of heart, for those of us who have been working to oppose these cuts, it's a bit late in the day.

“I have pledged to every resident that I will use all my energy to oppose these cuts - a promise I made before the election.”

In response to the criticism , Luke Hall stated that he has consistently supported a fairer school funding deal for South Gloucestershire schools.

He said: “I am proud to have a strong record of consistently raising the issue of a proper fairer funding deal in parliament, over the last two years, as recorded in Parliamentary debates at Education questions.

“As someone who was educated in a South Gloucestershire State school, this issue is very important to me.”

Addressing the mention of his voting record, Mr Hall added: “Others may like to talk of motions in the House that do nothing to get the best deal, but what really needs to be considered is who has been actively working on the issue for the past two years, meeting with headteachers to go over their budgets and standing up in Parliament to see that we get that proper funding deal we were promised."

Speaking about the various action taken by Mr Hall, Cllr Jon Hunt said: “Luke has been pushing the Government to deliver a fairer funding deal for South Gloucestershire. Having a Conservative MP in Thornbury and Yate has meant we are finally being heard on education funding in our area.”