Britain is ‘deeply elitist society’

Britain is still “deeply elitist” with privately-educated pupils and Oxbridge graduates continuing to dominate top roles in society, a major new report warns.

Many of the nation’s judges, politicians, armed forces chiefs, journalists, TV executives, public officials and sports stars attended fee-paying schools before going to to study at Oxford and Cambridge, it suggests.

This stark lack of diversity means that many of Britain’s key institutions are not representative of the public they serve, and the people running them may not understand the daily issues facing people from different backgrounds, according to the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.

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Lee Elliot Major, director of policy and development at the Sutton Trust, said: “These stark findings build on Sutton Trust studies to show that Britain’s top professions remain the preserve of the privileged few. We welcome the commission’s recommendations, many of which we are addressing through our programmes that focus on increasing access to top universities and professions including law, banking and medicine.

“Whilst we are making progress with the young people we work with, it’s clear that more needs to be done at Government level to address the issue of low social mobility.”

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