Boris Johnson to return to compulsory mass academisation? If he remembers what happened last time, he ought to be aware it would be highly unpopular

Is Boris Johnson’s government about to use its fresh electoral mandate to return to its campaign –launched but then discarded nearly four years ago –to academise all state-funded schools in England?

My question was prompted by a piece in the Guardian’s education pages yesterday. This was not the first I have read in recent weeks to have raised the idea of a renewed move on mass academisation now that the Tories have an 80-seat majority.

“Tory insiders…believe there is the appetite to complete the structural revolution that began in 2010, reflecting a long-held feeling in rightwing circles that no education secretary has been sufficiently radical since [the former education secretary Michael] Gove,” wrote Melissa Benn.

“More free schools have been promised and there will be a concerted push to convert all schools to academies over the next five years, mostly by herding schools into larger multi-academy trusts.”

It seems logical that some in “rightwing circles” would be keen on using Johnson’s new mandate to end local democratic oversight of schools once and for all.