The current Labour cabinet has been described as the most state-educated in British history: it’s not just Keir Starmer who went to a grammar school, all four holders of the great offices of state were state-educated.
It is, as LSE professor of sociology Sam Friedman explains, a marked departure from governments of the past – traditionally dominated not only by old public school boys, but by alumni of an even more exclusive circle. Two-thirds of the country’s prime ministers have come from so-called Clarendon schools – a group of nine of the most elite, prestigious, and expensive private boys’ schools in the country.
Indeed, it is not just positions of government – private school graduates are vastly, disproportionately likely to take up places among Britain’s elite, as judges and CEOs, newspaper editors and pop stars.
It is a power, Friedman writes in his new book Born to Rule – written with Aaron Reeves – that has had a profoundly unequal influence on British life, and still one that is underappreciated in the way we talk about class.
Yet starting this school term, and despite vociferous opposition in the rightwing press, the Labour government has repealed a VAT tax exemption enjoyed by private schools in the UK. As Helen Pidd asks, is this finally a moment when the influence of private schools will be curtailed?
