Early years is where you can make the biggest difference to a child's life chances

LABOUR will put affordable childcare for more parents at the centre of its manifesto.

- JOHN STEVENS

Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson today reveals fixing the broken system will be her "number one priority".

She tells us that early years education "is where you make the single biggest difference to children's life chances even before they arrive at school", adding: "It's how we will ensure all children, no matter what their background, have every chance to thrive."

And 40-year-old Bridget, who grew up in a council house near Sunderland and was on free school meals, vows Labour will transform education just as it did under Tony Blair when she was a teenager.

"I'm determined we'll put education front and centre of national life once more," she says.

"That's what I experienced under the last Labour government - the value of education and the impact that had on my life.

"I'm determined that we will do that again renewing education, education, education for the next generation of children."

With the General Election less than six weeks away, Bridget insists the stakes could not be higher.