Anti-grammar Shami: I’m no hypocrite for sending son to private school
SHAMI Chakrabarti yesterday denied she was a hypocrite for opposing the expansion of state grammars while paying for her son to attend a selective school.
Labour’s new shadow attorney general became emotional as she claimed she was simply ‘trying to do her best’ for her child by enrolling him at one of Britain’s top independent schools.
She insisted there was no conflict between this and her campaigning to stop pupils in the state sector benefiting from selection.
The peer admitted she led a ‘charmed and privileged life’, but said the fact she eats ‘ nice food’ while some of her neighbours go to food banks did not mean she was a hypocrite.
It emerged last week that Baroness Chakrabarti’s son had won a
‘Charmed and privileged life’
place at £18,000-a-year Dulwich College in south London after sitting a tough entrance exam.
Critics said it showed she believes selective education is fine for those who can pay for it – but not for parents who cannot afford it.
Baroness Chakrabarti, former head of civil rights campaign group Liberty, told ITV’s Peston on Sunday she opposed grammar schools because they enforce ‘segregation’.
‘In my lifetime I have met too many people, including incredibly bright, successful people, who carry that scar of failing the 11-plus … that segregation in schooling,’ she said.
When it was put to her that she could be branded a hypocrite because of her stance, the Labour peer said: ‘I live a charmed and privileged life, much more now than I ever did when I was a child, but people on the Left have often had charmed and privileged lives.
‘I live in a nice big house and eat nice food, and my neighbours are homeless and go to food banks. Does that make me a hypocrite, or does it make me someone who is trying to do my best, not just for my own family, but for other people’s families too?’
She added: ‘If you’ve got money you will always be all right. If you don’t have money in this country you are increasingly not all right, and that is why I have joined the Labour Party.’
When it was suggested pupils from middle-class homes attending state schools helps raise standards, she said: ‘I understand that, and I am not going to get into the personal stuff because there is a child in this world who did not choose to be Shami Chakrabarti’s child.’
Speaking on the same show, Education Secretary Justine Greening said new grammar schools would give parents more choice, and that poorer children who went to grammars progressed twice as fast as those from wealthier backgrounds.
Miss Greening stressed the move was ‘absolutely not about a return to the 11-plus’ as children will potentially be able to enter selective schools at many different ages.
Labour said it was Baroness Chakrabarti’s ex-husband Martyn Hopper who decided to send their son to a private school. ÷ Two Labour whips have resigned following the controversial sacking of the party’s chief whip last week.
Conor McGinn and Holly Lynch stepped down in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s removal of Rosie Winterton, with more whips expected to resign today.