FOR YEARS Maria Hutchings had dreamt of giving Tony Blair a piece of her mind about what she saw as the declining standards of education in Britain. Yesterday, during a live television debate watched by millions, she seized her chance.
Moments after the Prime Minister had answered a question about making bad schoolchildren behave, she picked up a photograph of her son and marched up to him.
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As television crews at the Birmingham studios, where The Wright Stuff was being broadcast on Channel Five, tried to block her path, the mother of four said: “Tony, that’s rubbish.”
Matthew Wright, the programme’s host, remonstrated, saying “hang on, hang on, hang on. If you wouldn’t mind sitting down”, before Mrs Hutchings pleaded with Mr Blair: “Please let me speak to you.”
Mrs Hutchings had not been chosen to ask a question during the debate but was determined to voice her concerns about the Government’s decision to phase out special-needs schools — 90 have been closed since Labour came to power. The school her son, John Paul Panzavecchia, who is autistic and has learning difficulties, attends is under threat of closure.
Spotting Mrs Hutchings’s evident distress, Mr Blair said: “Let me assure you, we will speak together at the end (of the show) and we can go through what your issue is.
“Don’t worry, you won’t leave without having spoken to me and me having gone through your problem.
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“Honestly, don’t worry, don’t worry. I’ll speak to you at the end and we can go through the issue and we can talk about it together.”
Mrs Hutchings, 43, from Benfleet, Essex, was ushered to her seat. After the programme she was taken to a private room and allowed to speak to Mr Blair for eight minutes.
She told The Times: “I said to him that he had banged on about ‘education, education, education’ for the election. But the reality is very different.”
Mrs Hutchings told him that the Government’s decision to phase out special-needs schools and include children like her son in mainstream classes with a part-time personal assistant was damaging every child’s education.
Specialists had said that John Paul, Mrs Hutchings’s son from her first marriage, would not be able to talk properly or read or write. But after he obtained a place at Cedar Hall Special School in Essex, he had outshone all expectations.
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“I told Mr Blair not to close that school or any other special school. Children in mainstream schools are having trouble learning with special-needs kids in their class, and the special-needs children are not getting the expert help they desperately need. This is a vital issue for the education system.”
Mrs Hutchings, a card-carrying Labour member until the 1980s, added: “He looked mortified. I do think he was shocked and concerned and he listened intently. He said he would look into it personally.”
When Mr Blair said he felt sorry for Mrs Hutchings, her husband, Stuart, 46, a marketing manager for an electronics company, and John Paul, she replied: “Don’t feel sorry for me. Get the provisions for children with similar conditions. You have seven weeks until the election. The proof is in the pudding. If you come back with some answers and constructive ideas you will get my vote.”
Mrs Hutchings said that Mr Blair, who signed a message ‘To John Paul, Best wishes, Tony Blair’, had promised to meet her at a later date to discuss his findings.
She added: “I told him that Middle England had been forgotten. I said he had been looking out of the country; to the war in Iraq, Africa. But Middle England who pay their taxes have their own troubles and are being ignored.”
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Tim Collins, the Shadow Education Secretary, said yesterday: “For Tony Blair to attempt to portray himself as the champion of special educational needs is the ultimate in pre-election cynicism. His reassurances are just talk.”