Education

Professor David Abulafia said that the culture wars had made being “white”, “male” and “privileged” terms of disapproval in university admissions.

"I’ve never heard someone say so many wrong things, one after another, consecutively, in a row," wrote one disheartened reader.

Vice-chancellor Richardson said the “decline was expected as a result of the changing fee regime occasioned by Brexit, but it is stark”.

“We are angry both at the content of the letter and at the fact that it was sent on a bank holiday, with an accompanying press release all but inviting the media to vilify schools."

It comes as Shadow education sec said there was an “irony” that the Government is seeking to take politics out of the classroom but simultaneously telling teachers what books to teach.

The NAHT said: “All too often we see baseless slurs and allegations made about the profession in an attempt to direct attention away from political failure.”

Early years childcare and education was “too often unaffordable, unavailable, inaccessible”.

“All of which shows me, personally, and us all, politically, that the culture wars rage and continue to rage and that they consume anyone who dares to challenge the narrow, monocultural base on which the current national curriculum, with all its assumptions on powerful knowledge is based."

The policy reminded people of a very similar project the Tories cut funding to.