What was claimed
Labour promised 6,500 new teachers, but there are now 1,900 fewer teachers.
Our verdict
It’s true that the overall number of FTE school teachers decreased by 1,900 between November 2024 and November 2025. But Labour’s target—while not clearly described in its manifesto—refers to a different, more specific set of teachers.
What was claimed
Labour made no mention of its target only including secondary schools until long after it was in government.
Our verdict
This isn’t quite right. Although Labour’s manifesto wasn’t specific, Sir Keir Starmer did say the pledge was for secondary schools on at least two occasions during the 2024 general election campaign, and this was reported at the time too.
“Latest stats show we’re over 70% of the way to our target to recruit 6,500 teachers in the places they’re needed most.
We have 4,654 more teachers in those schools and colleges compared to 2024.”
“Labour promised 6,500 new teachers. Today we learned that there are 1,900 FEWER teachers.”
Following the release of new school workforce data last week, education secretary Bridget Phillipson claimed the figures show the government is “over 70% of the way” towards its target to recruit 6,500 teachers.
In contrast, Conservative shadow education secretary Laura Trott MP suggested the government was failing to meet its commitment and pointed out “there are 1,900 FEWER teachers.”
So who is correct?
It is true that the latest figures show that the total number of full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers working in state-funded schools decreased by 1,900 between November 2025 and November 2024.
However Labour’s commitment to “recruit 6,500 new expert teachers in key subjects” refers to a different, more specific set of teachers.
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As our Government Tracker explains in more detail, Labour has pledged to increase the number of FTE teachers in secondary and special schools, as well as further education colleges. This commitment therefore doesn’t include primary or nursery school teachers, but does include some other types of teachers (further education) who aren’t included in the recently released data.
This definition has been challenged by the Conservatives, who have accused the government of moving the goalposts by not including all teachers. In an X post, Ms Trott claimed that “Labour made no mention of it being secondary schools until ages after they were in [government].”
It’s true that Labour did not specify exactly which teachers would be included in the target in its manifesto, beyond saying that they would be “expert teachers in key subjects”.
This didn’t clearly set out what the promise covered, and as we’ve written elsewhere, unclear commitments may confuse people, at best, and risk fuelling cynicism among voters. As we said in our manifesto standards before the election, manifestos should define things clearly and consistently and be phrased in a way that a reasonable person is likely to understand.
The government also did not set out key information about the exact baseline progress towards this target would be measured against until February 2026 (more than a year and a half into their time in office). We criticised the government last year for failing to provide full details about this pledge as well as a number of its other manifesto commitments.
That being said, it’s not correct to say that the government did not mention that the target was for secondary schools until after it took office.
We’ve found at least two examples of Sir Keir Starmer saying specifically that Labour would recruit 6,500 teachers in secondary schools during the 2024 general election campaign. A press release seen by Full Fact shared by the Labour party as early as August 2023 also linked the pledge to a need to recruit more expert teachers in secondary schools specifically.
The pledge was also reported as only applying to secondary schools before the general election by Schools Week, though the publication was critical of the lack of further details.
We’ve asked Laura Trott about her claim and will update this fact check if we hear back.
The overall number of teachers has clearly fallen under Labour. According to the School Workforce Census, in November 2025 a total of 466,372 FTE teachers were working in state-funded schools in England. This is 1,900 fewer than in November 2024, and 2,322 fewer than in November 2023 (the last School Workforce Census data under the Conservatives).
This decrease is mainly driven by a decrease in the number of primary school teachers, which the government says is taking place “in the context of a decreasing nursery and primary pupil population”.
The number of secondary school teachers has also decreased by around 500 since November 2024, which the government says is “in line with the secondary pupil population starting to decline”.
Despite this overall fall, the government can still claim to be on track to meet its manifesto teacher recruitment target by the end of this parliament, based on the way that has been defined.
The government’s pledge includes secondary teachers, special school and pupil referral unit (PRU) teachers and teachers in further education colleges, sixth-form colleges and schools-based further education providers, with a baseline of the 2023/24 academic year.
Although the number of secondary teachers has fallen in the latest year, it’s up by just under 1,000 compared to 2023/24.
The number of special/PRU school teachers and further education teachers has also increased over this period, for a total increase of 4,654 (though it’s worth noting that the further education figures within this are based on 2024/25 data as figures for the current academic year have not yet been published).
The government is therefore approximately 72% of the way towards its target of 6,500, with less than half the full parliamentary term complete.
Most of this increase took place between November 2023 and November 2024—the latest data shows an increase of around 670 in November 2025 compared to November 2024 (though we don’t yet have data for the further education workforce covering this period).
We’ve written about the progress the government has made towards this target in more detail here.
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