Theresa May faces backbench revolt over plans to force grammars to take up to a third of pupils from families who earn less than £33k a year
Unions claim grammar schools will still only benefit a minority
THERESA May faces a backbench revolt over plans to force grammars to take up to a third of pupils from families who earn less than £33k a year.
Pro-grammar school Tory grandees, including 1922 committee boss Graham Brady, said ordering selective schools to take quotas would be an “unfortunate measure”.
Mr Brady said grammar school intakes should instead “reflect the communities they are in”.
It came as Education Secretary Justine Greening set out her vision for 21st century grammars for struggling families who have fallen off the Government’s “radar”.
The senior backbencher – who quit David Cameron’s frontbench over his attitude to grammars - said: “I think one of the biggest problems with a quota approach is that it locks in an assumption that less advantaged pupils will always do worse.
“We ought to be raising expectations for less advantaged communities and the schools that serve them.
“There would be a huge variety of different social profiles in different parts of the country and different cities and towns.”
Justine Greening insisted the government would ensure grammar schools “worked for everyone” as she said she would have loved the opportunity to attend one.
But she hit out at existing grammars for not “listening to parents” and said “just about managing families” should not be forced to “make do” with an average education.
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She also said officials would widen their remit – to not just include inner city kids – but also families living in suburbs, coastal towns and the North of England.
She said: “Grammars do work for other groups in our society, not just the wealthy.
“The new schools we will create will support young people from every background, not the privileged few.”
But unions said grammar schools would still only benefit a “minority”.
A senior Tory source added: “It is clear the Government is scrabbling around for evidence for their policy and not coming up with much.”
And government advisory body the Social Mobility Commission said it remains “very unclear how new grammar schools will be more socially representative”.
It came as Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner was exposed over Labour hypocrisy on selective schools.
She was pushed in an interview over whether she was arguing for policies a number of senior Labour figures did not believe in in practice because they sent their children to private, or selective, schools.
But Ms Rayner said: “Well, I believe in it as practice because I’m looking at the evidence, and my kids are not guinea pigs, let me tell you.
“And all my children go to a comp system because we know what we did is improve school education.”