Theresa May promises to crack down on fee-paying schools as she outlines hard hitting education plans

THERESA May pledged to get tough on snooty fee-paying schools who have become “more and more divorced from normal life” in her hard-hitting speech yesterday.

The PM promised independent schools would be strong-armed into doing more to help the state sector if they wanted to keep their tax breaks.

Under proposals announced yesterday to force private schools to contribute more the PM said major institutions such as Eton, whose ex-pupils include David Cameron, would be asked to set up and run or sponsor new state schools.

Smaller independent schools will need to offer school places to kids from poorer families, share their facilities, offer direct teaching support or put their leaders on the boards of state schools to justify their charitable status.

Mrs May said those with the “capacity and capability” will be asked to go further by setting up Government funded schools, taking responsibility for running it and “ensuring its success”.

She said: “Most of the major public schools started out as the route by which poor boys could reach the professions.

“The nature of their intake may have changed today – indeed these schools have become more and more divorced from normal life.

“Between 2010 and 2015 their fees rose four times faster than average earnings growth, while the percentage of their pupils who come from overseas has gone up by 33 per cent since 2008.

“But I know that their commitment to giving something back to the wider community remains.”