Portrait of a Labour hypocrite
She condemns grammars... but sent both of her sons to them
A LABOUR MP who branded grammar schools ‘unequal and damaging’ was accused of hypocrisy last night after it emerged that she sent both of her children to the schools.
New Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield described grammars as ‘a Tory vanity project’ and said that they were not the way forward.
But yesterday it emerged that the mother-of-two had sent her two sons to a popular local grammar school – despite publicly insisting that no new ones should be built.
Theresa May had planned a huge expansion of grammar schools and a lifting of the ban – imposed by Labour – on any new ones opening.
However, the proposals were ditched from the Queen’s Speech in the wake of the Tory failure to win an overall majority at the general election.
Miss Duffield had made history during that election by winning the seat of Canterbury, which had been held by the Tories for 99 years
She sent both of her sons to a grammar school in Kent – the county with the highest concentration of the schools in the country. One still attends the school, but another left to attend a local free school after deciding the grammar was too ‘competitive’, she said.
During an election hustings event held at Canterbury Christchurch University
‘Always socialism for everyone else’
[Entrance exams are] horrible, divisive and stressful ... to be given the impression that they’re not as good as their peers is just damaging
in May, she was asked for her views on the selective schools.
‘We know it’s not the way forward – it’s not an equal system,’ she said.
Though she acknowledged that Kent residents voted to keep grammar entrance exam the Kent Test, she said children found it ‘horrible, divisive and stressful’. ‘Then to be given the impression that they’re not good enough or not as good as their peers is just damaging, in my opinion,’ she added. She did, however, say she wouldn’t shut down existing grammars or starve them of funds.
Last night, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen hit out at the ‘canting hypocrisy of the hard-Left’. ‘ Rosie Duffield sending her sons to grammar school is just like Diane Abbott sending her son to private school. It’s always socialism for everyone else,’he said.
The controversy emerged after Daniel Hamilton, a likely Tory challenger at the next election, asked for clarification of her views. ‘ How many families and young people in East Kent have benefited from our excellent local grammar schools,’ he wrote to her.
Mr Hamilton, a former grammar pupil in Canterbury now working as a consultant in London, added: ‘At the general election, you fought – and were elected on – a manifesto which pledged not to “waste money on inefficient… vanity projects” such as grammar schools.
‘ You personally described grammar schools as “unequal” and “damaging” and refused to support the expansion of local grammar schools – a move which will increase pressure for places at excellent schools.’
He also called for her to condemn ‘insulting’ remarks by Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner that grammar schools constitute ‘an ideological attack on the working class people of this country’.
Labour opposes plans for new grammar schools – but almost all of Mr Corbyn’s top team or their children benefited from the education they provide.
He attended a grammar and sent his children to one, leading Theresa May to tell him during Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this year: ‘Typical Labour, take the advantage and pull up the ladder behind you.’
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Miss Abbott and Shadow Lord President of the Council Jon Trickett all attended grammars. A spokesman for Miss Duffield said: ‘[Rosie] has worked within the constraints of the system she’s been given: Kent is a grammar county. You can’t opt out of the system, but you can disagree with it.’
Miss Duffield responded to Mr Hamilton: ‘I stood on the Labour manifesto of no new grammar schools. Parents want better funding for schools; parents also want good schools that allow all children to grow, develop and to rise to appropriate challenges in all spheres of learning.’