The document, entitled “Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child”, did include at least one key measure that could significantly change the education landscape.

The single most impactful announcement was the promise that all schools in England would either be in a multi-academy trust or in the process of joining one by 2030, with a single regulatory approach.

Six years ago, Nicky Morgan was forced to do an embarrassing U-turn on a similar pledge as education secretary after backbench Conservative rebels rejected the idea of already high-performing schools being forced to become academies.

While most of the 3,500 secondary schools in England are now already academies, the great majority of the 16,800 primaries in the sector are not, with only 44% of mainstream schools in England having made the switch. “There is some logic to all schools becoming academies,” said one commentator. “We know the current system is fragmented. It’s logical to bring schools under the same regulatory framework.”

Critics, however, warn that joining an academy trust does not necessarily lead to higher attainment and that making all schools academies will be fraught with difficulties. Zahawi has sweetened the pill by offering local authorities with successful schools the chance to set up their own multiple-academy trusts. Faced with government pressure to academise, it remains to be seen whether schools, unions and local communities still have the energy for a fight.

Otherwise, the white paper covers familiar territory – the new and widely welcomed national register for children not in school, the use of data to modernise and improve tracking of attendance, the £30,000 starting salary for teachers, plus more and better teacher training.

The number of people in the public sector’s largest pension schemes retiring on incomes of more than £100,000 has more than tripled in the past seven years, according to figures obtained by a charity promoting intergenerational fairness.

Pensions schemes covering the NHS, the civil service and the teaching profession were paying six-figure incomes last year to 375 retirees, up from 117 in 2010. 

Those in receipt of pensions higher than the UK’s average annual salary of about £28,600 also increased by 46% – up from 78,000 in 2010/11 to 115,000 in 2017/18.

The Intergenerational Foundation said the figures, which it obtained through freedom of information requests, illustrated a growing divide between the generations.

Angus Hanton, the co-founder of IF, said the figures excluded the state pension, which adds another £8,767 to the incomes of new retirees and would likely push the pensions of thousands more public sector workers above the average wage.

He said successive governments had sought to protect those close to retirement at the expense of a younger generation whose pensions would be much less generous.

Labour MP Jess Phillips takes aim at politicians considering imposing a £30,000 pay threshold for EU workers to be considered skilled, saying: ‘I have met many people who earn way more than £30,000 and have literally no discernible skills, not even one.’ The MP for Birmingham Yardley says the post-Brexit immigration proposal was ‘insulting’ to the care workers, nurses and teachers who live in her electorate. ‘I have definitely met some very rich people who earn huge amounts of money who I wouldn’t let hold my pint if I had to go and vote while in the bar,’ she says.