Keir Starmer urged to honour pledge to embed speaking skills in England’s schools

Alastair Campbell and children's author Michael Rosen among advocates calling for oracy to be in curriculum

The children's writer Michael Rosen, one-time political strategist Alastair Campbell and former education secretaries Charles Clarke and Estelle Morris have urged the prime minister to honour his pre-election pledge to embed speaking skills in England's schools.

They are among 60 signatories to an open letter to Keir Starmer, calling on him to establish oracy as a core part of Labour's revised national curriculum and make it the fourth R' in education, alongside reading, writing and arithmetic.