EXCLUSIVE Pictured: Gillian Keegan’s £300,000 holiday home where the under siege Education Secretary enjoyed a sun-kissed break as the schools crumbling concrete crisis loomed back home
- She reportedly chaired official Government meetings from the villa
This is the Spanish holiday villa where embattled Education Secretary Gillian Keegan enjoyed a sun-kissed break as the school concrete crisis loomed back home, MailOnline can reveal.
Mrs Keegan is said to have been at her three-bedroom retreat on the Costa del Sol when the scandal erupted in the UK last week.
She reportedly chaired meetings with Department of Education officials from the £300,000 villa she has owns with her husband Michael when she was told that scores of school buildings were in danger of collapse.
The modern townhouse, bought by the couple in 2003, according to land registry documents, is on a private complex which is surrounded by olive and palm trees and is a short drive inland from the Mediterranean.
Mrs Keegan is said to have been at her three-bedroom retreat on the Costa del Sol when the RAAC scandal erupted in the UK last week
The Spanish holiday villa where Education Secretary Gillian Keegan enjoyed a sun-kissed break as the school concrete crisis loomed back home
Mrs Keegan owns the £300,000 villa with her husband Michael (pictured right)
MailOnline can reveal that Moorish-style white-painted villas at the site appear to be sturdily built with no suggestion that they are at risk of collapse.
Each of the villas, for which the couple took out a mortgage of more than 160,000 euro, has its own patio and terracotta-tiled roof terrace for guests to relax in the sunshine and enjoy balmy evenings eating al-fresco.
Mrs Keegan took the tough decision while on her holiday to shut buildings containing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in more than 100 schools.
She was on the last day of her break on Thursday last week when the Government announced that RACC was present in 156 schools.
In a day of turmoil just four days before the start of the new school year, it was revealed that children were being banned from buildings in 102 of the schools across the UK to allow urgent safety checks to be made.
The announcement followed a report claiming the that buildings were at risk of falling down, due to them being built with the discredited construction material.
Emergency measures to tackle the problem at the other 54 schools were already underway when the announcement was made.
The crumbling school buildings seem a world away from Mrs Keegan’s holiday home complex where manicured lawns and gardens are maintained by a team of workers.
Villas at the site have lattice window grills, and black-out blinds with air conditioning units ensuring residents keen cool in the summer heat
Paved walkways lead to a private swimming pool which is illuminated at night
Villas at the site have lattice window grills, and black-out blinds with air conditioning units ensuring residents keen cool in the summer heat.
Paved walkways lead to a private swimming pool which is illuminated at night by discreet lamps while there is shaded parking for residents’ cars and 24-hour security.
This morning neighbours described Mrs Keegan as a ‘regular visitor’ to the complex, that is populated by various nationalities including British expats.
One British woman told MailOnline: ‘Gillian and her family were here last week. They come every year. She’s a very nice lady. It’s very peaceful here so we let people do their own thing.’
Mrs Keegan stepped into hot water on her return to Britain when she swore and voiced her frustrations about coverage of the faulty concrete row in off-camera comments during an interview with ITV News on Monday.
Mrs Keegan was in hot water as while she was wearing a microphone she criticised others and claimed the Government had gone ‘over and above’ in addressing concerns relating to RAAC
Neighbours described Mrs Keegan as a ‘regular visitor’ to the complex, that is populated by various nationalities including British expats
She was still wearing her microphone when she criticised others and claimed the Government had gone ‘over and above’ in addressing concerns relating to RAAC.
In the footage released by the news network, she said: ‘Does anyone ever say, you know what, you’ve done a f****** good job because everyone else has sat on their arse and done nothing? No sign of that, no’.
Ms Keegan later apologised and admitted she was ‘frustrated with the interviewer’ who was ‘making out it was all my fault’.
The Department of Education today clarified that it had actually identified 147 schools in England as having potentially dangerous RAAC concrete which was a popular building material between the 1950s and 1990s.
As a result, 19 of the schools in England had not yet reopened for the start of term and another 24 have imposed some remote learning on pupils.
They include four where lessons are taking place on a fully remote basis while there is a mix of face-to-face and remote learning in the 20 others.
Other schools on the list have brought in temporary classrooms or are using other facilities to carry on lessons until their buildings are made safe.
Supporters of Mrs Keegan argue that she had no choice but to order schools to shut after a roof with RAAC, which had previously been rated as safe, ended up caving in.
She previously showed political naivety when she decided to wear a £10,000 Rolex while touring broadcast studios in February to tell teachers they needed to be ‘realistic’ on pay.
In July, she argued against Labour’s plans to end the charitable status of private schools, saying that many of their fees ‘cost the same as a family holiday abroad’, even though the average cost of fees is £16,000 per year.
In the same month she was ridiculed by teaching unions after she suggested that head teachers should pick up absent children from their homes.
Last month, as teenagers waited for their exam results, she advised them not to fret because ‘in 10 years’ time no one will be looking’ at their grades.
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