Labour has committed to abolishing private schools and integrating them into the state sector, pledging to include it in Labour’s next manifesto.
Backed by Momentum and the Abolish Eton campaign, the policy passed overwhelmingly on conference floor and was endorsed by the Education Secretary Angela Rayner.
The motion commits Labour to include in its next manifesto the integration of all private schools into the state sector.
This includes stripping private schools of their charitable status, placing limits on the amount of privately educated pupils who can attend university and for private schools’ endowments and assets to be redistributed into the state education sector.
Angela Rayner’s endorsed the proposal in her speech to conference, saying that Labour will make “the whole education system fairer through the integration of private schools”.
John McDonnell also endorsed the policy in an interview with the Guardian before conference, saying “private schools don’t need to exist, and should not exist”.
The policy announcement comes after the Sunday Times Good University Guide found Russell Group universities continue to be the worst performers for social inclusion.
Out of the top seven universities in the guide, five of them selected fewer than half of their students from non-selective schools.
Cambridge dropped from fourth last in 2018/19 to having the lowest proportion of non-selective state school-educated children in the country.