Littlehampton MP hailed as ‘inspirational minister’ by Michael Gove

Mr Gibb lost his job as schools minister in a Government reshuffle a year ago, but Mr Gove described him as ‘a heroic Conservative minister’ and ‘an inspiration’.

In his speech to the conference yesterday (Tuesday, October 1), Mr Gove said: “There’s one other person I have worked with who I’d particularly like to thank; someone who throughout his ministerial career always sought to do the right thing; someone who ensured that we now have the right policies for reading for all our young people.

“Someone who fought to ensure we have an inspirational curriculum fit for the 21st century; someone whose sense of mission and commitment to social justice is an inspiration – former minister for schools, a great colleague and great friend of mine, Nick Gibb. Thank you, Nick.”

Mr Gove praised his former colleague for making a difference to the education system.

“It is thanks to his challenging the way in which schools were judged that we sent a signal to every school that the most important thing to do was to make sure that children were studying the sorts of rigorous subjects that would enable them to go to a good college or into a great job.

“And as a direct result of Nick’s interventions, in the last three years since this Government came to power, the number of students doing A-level biology has gone up by 14 per cent; the number studying A-level maths has gone up by 19 per cent; the number studying A-level physics has gone up by 22 per cent; and the number studying A-level chemistry has gone up by 24 per cent – more children learning more as a direct result of a heroic Conservative minister.”