Bridget Phillipson’s plan to allow teachers to work from home has been savaged – including by one irate member of the public who asked if she’d “started the Christmas sherry a bit early”.

Education Secretary Ms Phillipson told The Guardian all state school teachers should be allowed to work away from the classroom when marking, lesson planning and performing pupil assessment – with the Government introducing a Bill to achieve precisely that.

Her remarks followed the publication of data last month from a “working lives of teachers and leaders” survey showing 47% of participants were considering leaving the English state school sector because of a “lack of flexible working opportunities”.

This was up from 34% in last year’s equivalent survey.

The plans have been attacked – including by Rupert Lowe – with the Reform UK MP claiming such a change would cause educations standards to “plummet”.

And former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie suggested that if the Education Secretary’s suggestion were implemented, such a system would swiftly become “a minimum of one day a week”.

Those on social media were even more brutal with their analysis, with one accusing her or hitting the festive booze.

They said: “Teachers working from home? eh? Has Comrade Bridget started the Christmas sherry a bit early?”

The MP for Houghton and Sunderland South said: “Children’s life chances suffer without world-class teachers in our classrooms – that’s why it’s never been more urgent that we grip the teacher recruitment and retention crisis raging in our schools.

“That’s what this Government will do, by taking innovative examples from academies in offering more flexibility without reducing the teaching time with pupils.

“Our new Children’s Wellbeing Bill will transform children’s life chances, helping us break the link between their background and what they can go on to achieve: that means driving up standards across every school.”

The legislation was introduced in the Commons earlier this month.

Advocates argue that flexibility could make teaching a more attractive career, especially for those juggling personal and professional responsibilities, while maintaining focus on delivering high-quality education.

However, critics – among them Mr Lowe – have a very different take.

The Great Yarmouth MP told Express.co.uk: “If it wasn’t bad enough that the civil service refuse to go into the office, meaning we are still stuck with worse levels of productivity than before the pandemic, now Labour want to do the same for teachers.

“As we saw during the pandemic, when teaching isn’t done in a classroom, the quality of education drastically plummets.”

Mr Lowe added: “It’s time we started promoting hard work in the public sector, where the taxpayer is footing the bill. Britain needs Reform.”

Meanwhile Mr MacKenzie, posting on X, said: “Education Sec Bridget Phillipson tells the Guardian she is to let teachers WFH to do exam marking and lesson planning.

“Guarantee that will become a minimum of one day a week on top of their 13 week annual holidays.

“Parents will soon be dropping their kids off at their house.”