209. Shabana Mahmood: Palestine Action, Faith and What I Told Starmer
5 October 2026
55. Gillian Keegan: The future of British schools, union ‘barons’, and Sunak’s Rwanda battle
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Leading
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15 January 2024
What's it like to be the Secretary of State for Education who left school at 17? How much power do unions really have in British politics? What's it like to become a Tory MP when your family hails from the Labour Party?
Gillian Keegan joins Rory and Alastair on today's episode of Leading to answer all these questions and more.
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Producers: Dom Johnson + Nicole Maslen
Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport
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[…] a few words on the podcast interview Rory Stewart and I have just done on The Rest Is Politics LEADING with educat…. Rory has long argued that serving politicians are less interesting than people who can afford to […]
I think that Rory may be right. It would take a brave or foolhardy cabinet minister to answer probing questions in depth these days. Nevertheless, I was very disappointed with Gillian Keegan’s answers. Boris Johnson style boosterism seems to have infected them all, including her, and she may regret the day she gave so much prominence to PISA league table results as the placement depends on how much improvement other countries have managed as well as ours.
The overall impression I had was of someone who was filling the time to limit the questions asked and was not attempting to answer with any depth of reflection.
Gillian Keegan is responsible for English schools – so why does the podcast title refer to “British” schools?
Why are Remainer-y, liberal types in England (like myself) apparently so uncomfortable referring to England that they are happy both being inaccurate, and offending the other three nations by implying UK politicians are responsible for devolved matters in their territories?