Credit;PA
A U-turn on the way A-level results are awarded is expected to become the latest in a long list of major government reversals this year.
It is believed that the government will now allow for A-level results to be based on teachers’ predicted grades for their students, rather than an algorithm aimed at standardising results.
The algorithm had come under significant criticism ever since results were revealed last week.
Here, The London Economic looks at all the times the Government has backtracked.
In early May, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson set out the Government’s ambition that all primary-age children in England would have at least four weeks in school before the summer.
But on June 9, he said there was “no choice” but to scrap those plans amid concerns that the two-metre social distancing rule would make a full return impossible.
On June 19, a £1 billion plan was outlined by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help pupils catch up with the education they have missed while not at school.
On May 21, the Prime Minister stood by the fee that overseas health workers were being charged to use the NHS.
However, just hours later, following mounting pressure from senior Tories, it was announced that foreign health and care workers would be exempted from the scheme.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the U-turn a “victory for common decency”.
England striker Marcus Rashford was credited as playing a key part in forcing the Government to U-turn on its decision not to extend the children’s food voucher scheme into the summer holidays.
On June 16, Cabinet minister Grant Shapps said that free school meals are not normally extended to cover the summer period.
Yet a few hours later, No 10 backtracked on its stance, confirming that it would in fact extend the programme.
Speaking on Sky News the next day, Health Secretary Matt Hancock mistakenly praised “Daniel Rashford” for his campaigning efforts.
Face masks become compulsory in shops and supermarkets in England from mid-July, marking a U-turn on previous policy.
The government had been under pressure for weeks to give clear guidance about the use of face coverings in shops as many re-opened after more than three months of lockdown restrictions.
Johnson’s senior cabinet colleague, Michael Gove, appeared to rule it out, saying ministers instead trusted people’s “good sense”. But that was overruled just days later.
The Labour party accused the government of “days of ministerial muddle” and a “shambles” on the issue.
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