Robert Jenrick and Priti Patel land top jobs in Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet – live

Schools will receive national-level compensation for the national insurance rise for employers, educatio secretary Bridget Phillipson has confirmed.

She told the Commons: “What I can say is that where it comes to schools and colleges, they will be compensated at a national level.

“What I would however just point out to [new Tory shadow education minister Neil O’Brien] is that when I became Secretary of State in July, I was presented with the Teachers’ Pay Review Body award – 5.5 per cent – that the last government received, put in a drawer, ran away and called an election.

“We have backed our teachers who are crucial to the life chances of our children, and that’s why I was delighted that we were able to honour that award and recognise the vital contribution our teachers make.

“And that’s how we will recruit 6,500 new expert teachers. If they are refusing to back our commitments on VAT, then they should set out how many teachers they intend to cut.”

Sir Keir Starmer has spoken to Kemi Badenoch following her election as Conservative Party leader.

The PM’s official spokesperson confirmed on Monday that the pair had spoken over the phone since Saturday’s announcement.

Conservative leadership race finalist Robert Jenrick has been named the shadow justice secretary in Kemi Badenoch’s brand new shadow cabinet, according to reports.

Mr Jenrick accepted the role after Ms Badenoch offered it following the long leadership selection process, which ended on Saturday, Steven Swinford of The Times reports.

According to Mr Swinford, an ally of Mr Jenrick said he is “eager to expose Labour’s dreadful record on law and order”.

The new shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, has spoke in her new role for the first time.

Labour has “declared war” on students, Ms Trott warned.

In response to the tuition fee hike announced earlier, Ms Trott told the Commons: “We had a Budget last week which declared war on business, private-sector workers and farmers. It seems today that the secretary of state [Bridget Phillipson] wants to add students to that list.

“Not content with pushing up the cost of living for everyone with an inflationary Budget and pushing down wages with the national insurance increase, we are now in a situation whereby students will suffer from the first inflationary increase in a number of years at a time when students can least afford it.

“And yet again, there was no sign of this in the Labour manifesto.”

Universities UK (UUK), which represents 140 institutions around the country, has called the increase in tuition fees “the right thing to do”.

UUK chief executive Vivienne Stern said: “Thriving universities are essential to a thriving UK, delivering stronger growth, better public services and improving individual life chances.

“University leaders and government must work together to ensure that our universities are able to fire on all cylinders.

“A decade-long freeze in England has seen inflation erode the real value of student fees and maintenance loans by around a third, which is completely unsustainable for both students and universities.”

The University and College Union (UCU) says the Labour government’s tuition fee increase is “economically and morally wrong”.

General secretary Jo Grady said: “Taking more money from debt ridden students and handing it to overpaid, underperforming vice-chancellors is ill-conceived and won’t come close to addressing the sector’s core issues.

“As Keir Starmer himself said last year, the current fees system doesn’t work for students and doesn’t work for universities.

“The model is broken; it has saddled students with decades of debt, turned universities from sites of learning into corporations obsessed with generating revenue, and continually degraded staff pay and working conditions.”

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson says maximum maintenance loans will increase in line with inflation.

This will give students an additional £414 per year in 2025/26, Ms Phillipson says.

There is no use in keeping tuition fees down if “students can’t afford to support themselves while they study”, the education secretary told the house.

A “lower fee limit of £5,760 will also be introduced for foundation years in classroom based subjects such as business, social science and humanities”, she added. This will be in place from the start of the 2025/26 academic year.

Bridget Phillipson has just confirmed a rise to tuition fees for the first time in eight years.

Here’s what she had to say about the choice:

“Increasing the fee cap has not been an easy decision. But I want to be crystal clear that this will not cost graduates more each month as they start to repay their loans.

“Universities are responsible for managing their own finances and must act to remain sustainable.

“But members across the house will agree that it is now use keeping tuition fees down for future students if the universities are not there for them to attend.”

Downing Street said that Rachel Reeves had “very difficult” choices at last week’s Budget.

Pressed about the impact of the tax changes on farmers, Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesperson told reporters: “The chancellor had to set out a range of very difficult, tough choices at the Budget on Wednesday in order to address the fiscal black hole that the government inherited.

“Those decisions were never going to be easy but it means that the government’s able to wipe the slate clean and put our public services and our economy on a sustainable footing.”