AN INFLUENTIAL Tory MP blasted Prime Minister Boris Johnson today for short-changing children while spaffing £200 million on a new yacht, as the fallout over the education recovery fund intensified.

Education select committee chairman Robert Halfon told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that the government could “find the money from the back of the sofa” where there was the political will – including £16 billion for additional arms spending.

His remarks came the day after the government’s “catch-up tsar” Sir Kevan Collins resigned in protest at the paltry £1.4 billion allocated to the fund – just 10 per cent of what the education expert said was needed.