I’d end private schools – Gove

MICHAEL Gove says he wants state schools to be so good that a private education becomes an ‘eccentric choice’.

The former education secretary, who spearheaded a series of reforms to raise standards and toughen up qualifications, said the long-term goal was to make independent schools redundant.

Asked by the Evening Standard if he wanted to obliterate the private sector ‘by stealth’, he replied ‘well, yes’.

He also said fee-paying schools were helping their comprehensive counterparts achieve this goal, by offering mentoring and sharing facilities.

In a wide-ranging interview, Brexiteer Mr Gove also suggested that Britons are now more relaxed about immigration because of Brexit.