Former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has revealed his is studying for A-level maths having never achieved the qualification at school.
Mr Balls – former schools minister and Treasury secretary in the New Labour government – said he had “always regretted” not getting the A-level.
The ITV Good Morning Britain presenter – married to shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper – said his mother-in-law was teaching him and he was finding it “really, really hard”.
It comes as Rishi Sunak unveiled a new push to boost maths learning up until the age of 18 – attacking the “cultural sense that it’s OK to be bad at maths” in Britain.
Mr Balls said he agreed with Mr Sunak and revealed he only took maths to O-level. “I did economics all the way through to two years of graduate school. I did lots of economics maths – but I never did A-level maths, and I’ve always regretted it.”
The former minister said: “So before Christmas I decided to do something new. I’m learning the piano, I’ve learned to sail. I’m actually doing A-level maths, taught by my mother-in-law who is a brilliant maths teacher.”
Mr Balls added: “So I’ve been doing problem sets, I’m doing EdExcel, I’m doing fracturization and all this algebra. I’ve got to say – it’s really hard. It’s really, really hard.
“I decided that in two years’ time – look it could be five years’ time – I will be turning up in some college sitting in some desks with a bunch of 18-year-olds doing my A-level maths.”
GMB presenter Susanna Reid, who asked her co-host if he was “some kind of masochist”, said: “I’m having a panic attack just thinking about it. It’s my anxiety dream.”
In a speech at a north London college, Mr Sunak said children risk losing out on jobs and being “shut out” of the lives they would wish to lead because of an “anti-maths mindset”.
The PM announced an expert-led review into how to carry out his plan to ensure all pupils in England study some form of maths up to the age of 18 – without making maths A-Level compulsory.
The review will look at whether a new maths qualification will be needed. Mr Sunak also committed to expanding teaching maths hubs, and introduce a new voluntary and fully funded professional qualification for primary school maths teachers.
Mr Sunak has insisted it is wrong to talk about him “forcing” pupils to study a subject that they do not enjoy with his ‘maths to 18’ plan.
“I think if you ask yourself why is it that virtually every other developed country in the world thinks that it’s the right thing for their children to be studying some form of maths up to 18,” he said.
The PM added: “And if you look at it, why is it that we’re not doing as well, as I think we all want to do when it comes to numeracy in our country today, and then you’ve ask yourself: is that right? I don’t think anyone could justify that.”
But Labour criticised the “empty pledge”, with shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson saying: “Once again, the prime minister needs to show his working: he cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers.”
And Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that instead of “re-announcing a vague and poorly thought-out policy”, Mr Sunak should focus on resolving the pay dispute which has triggered industrial action.
