Conduct Of The Hon Member For Dewsbury And Independent Schools

EDM number 704 in 1993-94, proposed by James Pawsey on 01/03/1994.

That this House notes the interview given in the magazine of the Independent Schools Information Service by the Labour Party's spokesman on education, the honourable Lady for Dewsbury, in which she re-affirms the Labour Party's opposition to independent schools; notes in particular her desire to abolish the assisted places scheme which provides access to independent education to more than 30,000 children from low income families, and also her intention to re-open the issue of charitable status for independent schools, thereby reversing the policy of her predecessor, the honourable Member for Blackburn; believes that the assertion by the honourable Lady that people send their children to independent schools in order to buy 'social value' does not square with recent survey data and shows how totally out of touch she is with the aspirations of many parents in this country; and concludes that with this interview the honourable Lady has taken the policy of her party several steps leftwards and shown herself to be entirely out of step with the modernisers within the Labour Party.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.