Britain’s political elites have no life experience, says Le Carre

JOHN Le Carre has criticised ‘political elites’ for not having any experience of real life.

The author said ‘we choose our elite horribly badly’ in Britain and there is little hope if private education continues to ‘command the scene’.

The 85-year-old’s comments come despite the fact he attended the independent Sherborne School and taught languages at Eton College in the 1950s.

Le Carre, who wrote The Night Manager and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, said: ‘We’re getting people who start their political careers at university and go in as special assistants to MPs, like those ridiculous people who were advising May. We are run by the wrong elite. It’s extraordinary to realise that Clement Attlee commanded a regiment in the war. Even Heath had experience of the war.

‘It isn’t the war that’s the defining factor, it was having to work with men and women of all classes. They were blooded, those people. They knew whereof they spoke. What we now have is the wrong set.’

Le Carre, whose latest novel A Legacy Of Spies is out this week, also hit out at Brexit, telling The Sunday Times: ‘One government after another blamed Europe for its own failures because they never invested in the concept of a united Europe.’