As a grammar girl, I despair of my kneejerk party

THERE will be many ideas proposed by Theresa May that I as a Labour MP will oppose with all my heart.

But restoring grammar schools to their rightful place in England’s mixed educational system is not one of them.

I write as the proud product of just such a school.

It is why I am dismayed at the kneejerk, ideological opposition to grammars now being mounted by my own party’s leadership – although many of them, and their children, benefited from the very same type of education.

I can remember my first day at my own grammar – Belfast Royal Academy in Northern Ireland.

Within days I was friends with a wonderfully disparate group: the daughter of a shipyard worker, the son of a postman, the daughter of the editor of Northern Ireland’s morning newspaper and a girl from a Jewish family that owned Belfast’s most exclusive shop.

What brought us all together was the very selective system which, though it still exists where I grew up, is now a dirty word in English education.

Grammar schools in Northern Ireland are still an engine for social mobility and enjoy widespread support.

But in England, the shortage of such school places has led to those who can afford it moving house to be near them.

There are other difficulties too in England, not least the danger that some youngsters are consigned to education’s second division if they fail an exam at the age of 11.

But rather than stop grammar schools, why are we not, as in Northern Ireland, improving all of our schools?

I am saddened that my own party should be pathetically predictable in its response to the reforms – dusting down the same tired, old, uninformed arguments as to why one-size-fits-all education is somehow the only socialist, Left-wing way.

Mediocrity isn’t – and never was – what Labour should be offering its supporters.

What makes the wrong-headed opposition of Labour’s top team all the worse is its staggering hypocrisy.

The advantages that grammar schools provided were good enough for them but not, apparently, for young people now.

It is the definition of scrambling up the ladder and then kicking it away for future generations – just like Margaret Thatcher did during her premiership. Schools have improved a great deal in London since I was first elected an MP back in 1989.

But many middle-class parents find some excuse to get their children into the small number of highly desirable ‘state schools’ in inner London.

So the system is rigged now in favour of the pushy parent: those with clout, money or influence.

Only by allowing successful schools of all kinds to expand can we offer real choice to our children – and that must include grammar schools.

So this former grammar school girl will be putting aside tribal party politics and backing what worked for me – and will work for today’s young people.