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Ban on creating new grammar schools to remain in place

Announcement comes as shadow education secretary Angela Rayner accused ministers of “ideologically obsessing” over grammars.

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Theresa May’s plan to lift the ban on creating a new wave of grammar schools has been scrapped, Education Secretary Justine Greening has said.

Controversial proposals for a new generation of grammars formed a key part of the Tory election manifesto but the absence of plans in last week’s Queen’s Speech prompted speculation that the idea had been dropped.

Ms Greening has now said the ban would remain in place in response to a written parliamentary question from Labour’s Catherine West (Hornsey and Wood Green), saying: “There was no education bill in the Queen’s Speech, and therefore the ban on opening new grammar schools will remain in place.”

It came as shadow education secretary Angela Rayner accused ministers of “ideologically obsessing” over grammar schools as MPs took part in a Queen’s Speech debate on education in the Commons.

Tory MP Mike Wood (Dudley South), intervening on Ms Rayner, said: “Perhaps you could add a little light to your own policy on the question that has been asked at most of these sessions but never properly answered – would a Labour government abolish existing grammar schools?”

In reply, Ms Rayner said: “I think I have been quite clear that we would concentrate on standards and not structures.

“Unlike this Government that are obsessing, ideologically obsessing, and wasting billions of pounds, not my words, the National Audit Office’s, on their fixations.

“The question is whether now the Government will get on with the job… and will the Secretary of State now make clear that there will be no attempts to lift the ban on new selective schools?”

She urged Ms Greening to focus on tackling “the crisis in teacher funding and the workforce” rather than creating problems by introducing more selective schools.

Ms Greening used her address to criticise Labour’s higher education policies, claiming their proposals to scrap tuition fees would benefit children from “better off families”.

She told MPs: “Labour have been proposing a policy that will actually lead to more inequality in our country, it will actually benefit the young people who are most likely to do well.

“In other words university students from better off, richer backgrounds, but paid for by everyone, including lower income workers, pensioners.”

Justine Greening
Education Secretary Justine Greening (David Mirzoeff/PA)

Ms Greening added: “I’m not sure what the Labour Party thought its raison d’etre was but clearly it is no longer lifting up the children growing up in our most disadvantaged communities that are furthest away from having a level playing field on opportunity.”

She insisted that Labour will “never be credible” to parents in England until it explains why it is “failing children” in Wales, as the Labour-run administration is the lowest performing in the UK.

Ms Greening said: “It’s significantly below England now in maths, reading and science, and that is Labour’s legacy for Welsh children that they would import to English children if they ever get the chance.”

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