Just 38 per cent of people believe that the government should build more grammar schools and encourage more schools to select by academic ability, according to new YouGov poll has found.

Almost a quarter (23 per cent) of people believe existing grammar schools should be scrapped, while 17 per cent say current selective schools should remain but no more should be created, another 22 per cent were “not sure”.

But the poll, carried out last week, found that more two thirds of the adults (67 per cent) would send their child to a grammar school if they passed an entrance exam. 

The findings poll comes after recent reports have suggested that Theresa May is planning to lift the ban on further academic selection in schools brought in by Tony Blair in 1998.

Evidence suggests that grammar schools take a disproportionately small proportion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. But the YouGov survey found that only 19 per cent of the English public think they damage social mobility, another 35 per cent thought they improved it, 27 per cent said it made no difference and 20 per cent were not sure.