YP Comment: Class warfare over Grammar School examination

IF THERESA May had sought the counsel of Ripon Grammar School headmaster Martin Pearman before Prime Minister's Questions '“ he has written an enlightend piece in today's YP '“ she might have been in a better position to answer some of Jeremy Corbyn's more direct questions about this policy and how pupils from all walks of life might benefit from education policy going back in time.

Martin Pearman: Our grammar school has much to teach the country – and Theresa May

Despite this, the PM still managed to tease out Mr Corbyn’s rank hypocrisy by pointing out that both she, and the Leader of the Opposition, were beneficiaries of a grammar school education and that poorer children were being deprived of opportunities because their parents cannot afford to buy,  or rent, a property in the catchment area of the best performing comprehensives.

As Mrs May stressed, there is still a chronic shortage of places in the top-performing schools and she does, at the very least, accept the need to improve social mobility unlike Labour which still has a front  bench bereft of credibility  or broad appeal.

Mr Corbyn concluded his last question before the result of the Labour leadership contest is known by saying “Can’t we do better than this?”. Echoes of his predecessor Ed Miliband’s ‘we are better than this’ mantra, this clumsy choice of words provided more ammunition for the Opposition leader’s many critics on the Commons backbenches who believe that his ideological class warfare is the reason for their party’s desperate predicament.