As a current PGCE student, I was shocked and appalled by Dr Starkey personally attacking a student because of his weight. If it was provoked I could understand to some extent, but in this case it was not at all.

The column inches you gave him in The TES, however, give him authority and respect - both of which I feel he lost at the very moment he finished telling a troubled teenager: “You’re so fat you couldn’t really move.”

It really does confirm that there is one rule for us and another for the celebrity classes. I can assure you that if I acted like this I would be booted out of my placement school.

Please can you confirm that a counter argument will be published to offer a balanced story? I think Dr Starkey should be taken to task for this and, as a minimum, I feel a personal apology to the profession and to that youngster is needed.

Neil Holbrook, Address supplied.