Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Graham Stuart (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 13 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Academy Programme

Question: The Secretary of State may have been envious of the success and cross-party support enjoyed by the architect of the academies programme, Lord Adonis, but was that really reason enough to force him out?

Answer: That was rather a silly question, if I may say so. Lord Adonis was promoted from Under-Secretary with responsibility for schools to Minister of State at the Department for Transport and, as he has said very clearly, he went to the Prime Minister and said that because academies were now embedded as part of our schools system and were so successful, he wanted to move to a new challenge. I fully backed that. I tried to persuade him to stay at our Department because I thought he was doing a brilliant job, but he wanted a new challenge. We have an excellent successor in the Minister for Schools and Learners, who will lead the academies programme forward. My advice to the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) is to ignore the gossip and look at the facts.

Secondary information