Up to 13,000 teachers face redundancy because of Labour's "jobs tax" and unfunded pay rises, Conservatives claim. The National Insurance increase has put up the cost of employing staff while the Government has given teachers a bumper pay rise without providing with the cash to pay for it.

As a result, schools are having to find savings - including cutting staff numbers. Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said: "Thousands of teachers' jobs are already on the line due to Labour's broken promise to compensate schools for their jobs tax, now the Government are making things worse by refusing to fund teacher's pay rises.

"The Prime Minister and his ministers have repeatedly failed to rule out whether their decisions are putting teachers' jobs at risk. Sadly, we now know why.

"Labour must put this right at the upcoming spending review or, up and down the country, schools will be forced to make more painful redundancies as a direct result of their failure to keep their word."

The Government promised to provide extra funding to but a survey from the Association of School and College Leaders revealed that the majority of schools will not have their new National Insurance (NICs) costs covered by compensation, with a staggering 86% of respondents saying they will be forced to make cuts to staffing next year as a result.

Meanwhile the School Teacher's Review Body has reportedly recommended the government award teachers a pay rise of 4.3%. The Prime Minister's spokesman said on the 28th April that "There'll be no additional funding for pay". Without funding to compensate for this pay rise, schools will be left with a shortfall of £800 million according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The £800m shortfall is equivalent to 13,351 full time teachers on the average teacher's annual wage. But Conservatives say the true figure may be even higher, as teachers are already being made redundant due to the pressures being felt in school budget.

It follows the Government's decision just weeks after Labour's general election victory last June to give teachers a 5.5% pay rise, coming into force in September. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the cash showed the new administration's commitment to "working in partnership with our wonderful teachers" and pledged the increase would be "fully funded", meaning school budgets would be increased.

But a technical note published by the Department for Education has revealed that costs rose more than funding in the 2024-25 year. It said: "Comparing the increases in funding and costs would imply that mainstream schools have, on average, a deficit of 0.5 per cent in 2024-25,2 or £250 million, at the national level."

This shortfall will be dwarfed by the huge funding gap facing schools in the 2025-26 academic year after the School Teachers' Review Body, which makes pay recommendations, called for a bumper pay rise of nearly 4%.

The Department for Education had proposed a more modest increase of 2,8% - but admitted schools would have to make "efficiencies", Whitehall code for cuts, to pay for this.

The Department for Education admitted in evidence to the pay review body: "Most schools will need to supplement the new funding they receive in 2025-26 with efficiencies."

An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has predicted a pay rise close to 4% would leave schools nationwide with a shortfall of £800 million.

The Department for Education spokesperson says it is putting a further £3.2bn into schools' budgets.