UK Labour declares class war, wants to abolish posh private schools like Eton and Harrow
- Main UK opposition Labour Party adopts policy to scrap private schools such as Eton, the alma mater of Prime Minister Boris Johnson
- Advocates also want 7 per cent of students admitted by universities to come from private schools
For centuries, elite British schools like Eton and Harrow, have been revered and reviled as the harbingers of privilege, prime ministers and posh accents. But could the days of the gilded classroom and schoolboys in coattails be heading for the history books?
In a sweeping attack on class inequalities and the “old boy network” for which the country is famous, the opposition Labour Party on Sunday voted through a policy to integrate private schools into state education if it wins the next general election.
Meeting at their annual conference in the southern English town of Brighton, Labour activists pledged to strip all fee-paying schools of their charitable status.
They also adopted a policy that ensures only 7 per cent of students admitted by UK universities come from private schools, a figure said to be in line with the national proportion of pupils attending them.
The approved motion also pledged to distribute public school’s endowments and assets in the state education sector.
Eton College alone has an estimated £400 million (US$500 million) in assets that, if Labour was elected, it could be asked to hand over to the state.
