The Times referenced new Sutton Trust research in an article on the new MPs

The proportion of MPs who went to comprehensive school has risen to almost 50 per cent as the number of privately educated Tories has dropped to an all-time low.

Although 20 MPs — all Tory — still went to Eton, the educational background of the new House of Commons has become more representative of the country. Two thirds of the new intake attended a comprehensive compared with 44 per cent of those re-elected. Much of this is down to the Scottish Nationalists, with 90 per cent having gone to comprehensives.

A new analysis by the Sutton Trust think-tank shows that the numbers of those who were educated at comprehensive schools jumped from 43 per cent to 49 per cent of all MPs, while the proportion of those who went to independent schools dropped from 35 per cent to 32 per cent, its lowest ever level. The remaining 19 per cent were educated at grammar schools. However, MPs are still four times more likely to have gone to a fee-paying school than the population as a whole.

“It is good to see more comprehensive-educated MPs in the new House of Commons, reflecting the schools attended by 90 per cent of children,” said Lee Elliot Major, chief executive of the Sutton Trust. “But with almost a third of MPs attending a private school and a quarter having been to Oxbridge, these figures remind us how important it is that we do more to increase levels of social mobility and make sure that bright young people from low and middle-income backgrounds have access to the best schools and the best universities.”

Read the full article here.(£)

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