Will Labor take power over private schools in the UK? – podcasts | Private schools

The current Labor government has been described as the most educated state in British history: Keir Starmer is not the only one to have attended high school, all four state office holders have been educated of state.

It is, as the LSE sociology professor says Sam Friedman explains, a marked change from governments of the past – traditionally dominated not only by old boys from public schools, but also by alumni from an even more exclusive circle. Two-thirds of the country’s prime ministers come from the so-called Clarendon schools – a group of nine private boys’ schools that are among the most elite, prestigious and expensive in the country.

Indeed, it’s not just government jobs: private school graduates are disproportionately likely to take up places among Britain’s elite, as judges and CEOs, newspaper editors and pop stars.

It is a power, Friedman writes in his new book Born to Rule – written with Aaron Reeves – that has had a profoundly uneven influence on British life, and one that still remains underestimated in the way we talk about class.

However, from this start of the school year, and despite vehement opposition from the right-wing press, the Labor government repealed the VAT exemption enjoyed by private schools in the United Kingdom. As Helen Pidd wonders: is this finally the moment when the influence of private schools will be reduced?