Tories abandon support for grammar schools

The Tories are abandoning their support for grammar schools after branding them unfair to poorer families and only really beneficial for middle class children.

Shadow education secretary David Willetts rejected the view - for years a strongly-held Tory belief - that academic selection was the best way to raise school standards.

And he claimed that the Tories would build more of Tony Blair's favoured privately-sponsored city academies than would be opened under a Gordon Brown government.

In a speech to the CBI, Mr Willetts said: "We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids.

"This is a widespread belief but we just have to recognise that there is overwhelming evidence that such academic selection entrenches advantage, it does not spread it.

"A Conservative agenda for education will not be about just helping a minority of pupils escape a bad education. We want better schools for all, based on fair admission and fair funding."

He added: "That is why we are outlining a series of specific measures for driving up standards and expanding the academies programme begun by Tony Blair."

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