Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of not thinking schools should be safe in a blistering renewal of its attack adverts.
It comes as more than 100 schools were ordered to close over concerns about collapse-prone reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) just days before the start of the new term.
Widely used in the 1960s and 1970 with a lifespan of 30 years and a texture described as “bubbly”, the material was flagged as a safety risk in 2018 following the collapse of a school roof in Kent.
A report published in June revealed 400 other schools could be impacted by the material’s long-term use, putting an estimated 700,000 pupils at risk of being crushed.
The latest ad, posted on the party’s official Twitter account on Sunday, features a smiling portrait of the prime minister alongside his trademark signature, and a caption that reads: “Do you think your child’s school should be safe? Rishi Sunak doesn’t.”
The post added: “During Rishi Sunak’s time as chancellor, he cut spending on school rebuilding by almost HALF. That’s after the Tories and Lib Dems scrapped Labour’s Building Schools for the Future programme in 2010.
“The Tories ignored Labour’s warnings time and time again – now our children are paying the price with crumbling schools.”
In April, the party posted a similar ad which accused Sunak of not believing convicted paedophilles should go to prison following Ministry of Justice data which revealed 4,500 adults who performed sex acts on children have avoided a prison sentence since 2010.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said he would “make absolutely zero apologies for being blunt” in an article published in the Daily Mail following the row that ensued over the messaging of the ad.
In a jibe to those within his own party who had criticised the post, he said: “Too many people treat this as trivial, unimportant or something Labour shouldn’t talk about. Working people suffer when crime is left unchallenged – crime will always be a Labour issue.
“Try telling the people I meet who are scared to go out at night, because their communities suffer the brunt of failures to tackle crime, that law and order doesn’t matter. They will give you short shrift.”
The return of the party’s ads comes amid allegations from a senior civil servant that Sunak refused to fully fund a programme to rebuild England’s crumbling schools.
Jonathan Slater, who served as permanent secretary at the Department for Education from May 2016 to August 2020, claimed the Treasury had failed to support school rebuilding schemes – including while Sunak was chancellor.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The actual ask in the Spending Review of 2021 was to double the 100 to 200 – that’s what we thought was going to be practical at first instance.
“I thought we’d get it, but the actual decision that the chancellor took in 2021 was to halve the size of the programme.”
Related: Sunak blamed by former official over rebuilding cuts