The Prime Minister’s plans to introduce compulsory maths education for student until the age of 18 ‘doesn’t add up’ according to Carlisle’s Labour candidate.

In a speech made in London on Monday, April 17 Rishi Sunak said that an "anti-maths mindset" is preventing the economy from growing further.

The Prime Minister said that the UK had a "cultural sense that it's ok to be bad at maths” which left the country as one of the least numerate countries in the developed world.

Poor numeracy had proved a problem for employers, he said, and was costing the economy "tens of billions a year". He said the plans would help ‘left behind’ students in the job market.

Carlisle’s Labour candidate, Julie Minns said that she was ‘dubious’ about the plans.

"I'm dubious about taking maths lessons from the same people whose calculations were so wrong they crashed the economy,” said Julie.

“Rishi Sunak needs to show his working because by my reckoning if you are already thousands of maths teachers short of the required numbers and you have cut real terms pay for 13 years, introducing a policy that requires thousands more maths teachers simply does not add up.

“In contrast to a Conservative government devoid of practical policies, Labour would end tax breaks for private schools to drive improvements in education standards across the board".

Former Carlisle city councillor and National Education Union (NEU) president, Louise Atkinson also agreed with Julie Minns and said “We need more maths teachers not more maths education.

What do they (the government) not understand about the recruitment and retention crisis we currently have in the profession?”

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Rishi Sunak’s plan has been backed by Workington MP, Mark Jenkinson who also hit out at the plan’s critics.

In a social media post, Mr Jenkinson said: “I see the chattering classes have decided that Maths wasn’t for them, so shouldn’t be for everyone else.

“It betrays complete ignorance of the jobs they rely on people to do for them.

“Everyday trades use algebra, Pythagoras’ theorem and all the things they think unimportant.”

Across the country almost a third of 16-year-olds fail GCSE maths each year.