Education minister under fire after sharing photos relaxing on French holiday during A Level grades fiasco

Gillian Keegan/Instagram
Kit Heren23 August 2020

An education minister has come under fire for sharing photos of herself enjoying a holiday in France while thousands of students were facing A-level chaos in England.

Gillian Keegan took to Instagram to share images of herself hiking, mountain biking and swimming, while school leavers were contemplating a disrupted future after thousands of grades were initially downgraded due to an algorithm-based system.

Ms Keegan is Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills at the Department for Education. She is jointly responsible for education strategy after the age of 16.

But despite this, she remained in France as the results chaos took place, with her boss, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, even "liking" some of her photos.

While she was on holiday, France was put on the UK's quarantine list, meaning people who came back from the country from August 15 had to self-isolate for 14 days.

This could have cut Ms Keegan's trip short, but she wrote on Instagram: "We will have to make the most of it as we will be quarantined for 14 days when we get back." Mr Williamson "liked" this post.

It is unclear when the Chichester MP returned to the UK but she posted that she was "back in Blighty" on Saturday.

Depending on when she got back, Ms Keegan may be unable to go back to the House of Commons when it sits again at the start of September.

Sources close to Ms Keegan defended the trip, saying she was still working during on holiday and that Michelle Donelan, who shares the post-16 education strategy brief, was on duty while she was away.

They told the Mail on Sunday: "She wasn’t just sitting with her feet up all the time."

But Labour slammed Mr Williamson for letting Ms Keegan "swan off on holiday" during such an important time.

Labour MP Neil Coyle told the newspaper: "Gavin Williamson’s incompetence truly knows no bounds.

"Young people who have been put through hell over the last few weeks will be disgusted to learn that one of the Ministers involved in this mess has been living it up on holiday in France.

"But instead of Mr Williamson recognising he needed all hands on deck as this exam disaster loomed, he not only let her swan off on holiday, he even liked her holiday snaps."

The Education Secretary hit like on several of her holiday photos, including a post two days before A-level results day when she wrote that she was enjoying "another wonderful day #hiking in the mountains".

But at the same time the media were already warning of the results crisis to come, with reports in the week leading up to results day that up to 40 per cent of grades submitted by teachers could be marked down.

Mr Williamson was forced to abandon the algorithm-based system for awarding A-level and GCSE grades in England in the middle of exam results season.

Ofqual revealed that nearly two in five (39.1%) A-level grades in England were reduced from teachers’ predictions. They were then reverted back to teachers' grades unless the moderated grade was higher.

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