TATTON’S new MP insists that ensuring schools in Knutsford and Wilmslow have enough money is one of her top priorities.

Esther McVey met with several concerned parents on the doorstep in the weeks leading to this month’s General Election.

Now serving as Tatton’s Conservative MP, she is set to meet with the headteachers of Knutsford Academy and Wilmslow High School to discuss their funding fears.

And Ms McVey insists that ensuring schools in east Cheshire are funded fairly ‘is one of the big things I’m doing straight away’.

“You cannot have the cuts to the school formula, and in the manifesto it said that schools will not gain money to the detriment of other schools,” she told the Guardian.

“So now we have to ask – what is the funding formula going to be, and how can we get as much money to the schools as possible?

“Yes we know that the money has gone up, but equally we know that the student population has gone up as well, and you have to balance that.

“So what is the most money we can get? What is it that we can afford? And how do we make it work for schools in Cheshire?

“There’s no point pretending that you can have whatever you want, but we have got to have the best that we can get – making sure all Cheshire MPs represent the views of staff and parents here.”

Last Wednesday, the Queen’s Speech promised that the Government would work to ensure ‘that all schools are fairly funded’.

In the background briefing notes to the speech, the Government said: “We believe that the current arrangements are unfair and we remain committed to changing them.

“That is why we recently consulted on a national funding formula for schools, and why we will deliver on our manifesto commitment to make funding fairer.”

Following the speech, the Fair Funding for All Schools group insisted it would keep up the pressure on parliament to deliver adequate funding for education.

And it urged the Conservative Party to ‘reflect’ on the message voters sent in the General Election by ‘thinking through the implication of their proposed cuts to per pupil funding’.

“We support funding reform, but it has to be properly funded,” the group said.

“The background briefing note to the Queen's Speech confirmed that the Government is committed to increasing the school budget further. 

“We sincerely hope that this will be new money in order to address the impact of the cuts to date and to ensure that per pupil funding is protected in real terms over the lifetime of this parliament.

“However, sticking to the spending plans set out in her manifesto will mean that the Prime Minister intends to inflict further cuts to per pupil funding.”