Labour’s education policies were again in the spotlight this week after it emerged that a front-bencher has chosen independent and grant-maintained schools for his children.
Paul Boateng, the party’s legal affairs spokesman, sends his daughter Charlotte, 11, to Watford Grammar School for Girls while his son Ben, nine, attends Pounds 4,500-a-year Devonshire House School in Hampstead, north London.
The row over the Brent South MP’s choice of schools follows recent controversies surrounding Tony Blair’s decision to send his son to the grant-maintained London Oratory school, eight miles from his Islington home, and the disclosure that Peter Kilfoyle, Labour’s junior education spokesman, sends his son to the Blue Coat School in Liverpool, a voluntary aided comprehensive recently criticised by the Department for Education for covertly selecting pupils. Labour’s education team is reviewing key policies on opting out and admissions. Mr Blair is believed to want new policies which offer parents a choice of provision, but has come under pressure from traditionalists seeking to abolish GM schools and reaffirm the party’s commitment to comprehensives.
A spokeswoman for shadow education secretary David Blunkett said Mr Boateng’s decision was a personal matter.
