Social mobility leaders have raised concerns that Liz Truss’ newly appointed Cabinet has a higher number of privately educated ministers than the past five prime ministers’ first line-ups.
Analysis by the education charity the Sutton Trust shows that 68 per cent of Ms Truss’ Cabinet-attending ministers were educated at fee-paying schools - almost ten times higher than the rate in the general population.
This compares with 64 per cent of Boris Johnson’s first Cabinet, 30 per cent of Theresa May’s, 50 per cent of David Cameron’s Cabinet in 2015 and 62 per cent of the 2010 coalition Cabinet of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
The debut Cabinets in the most recent Labour governments, under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, were both 32 per cent privately educated.
With Kwasi Kwarteng appointed as chancellor, Suella Braverman as home secretary and James Cleverly as foreign secretary, three holders of the so-called great offices of state were privately educated.
The analysis also shows that 19 per cent of Ms Truss’ Cabinet, including the prime minister herself, attended comprehensive schools and 10 per cent received a grammar school education. Just over a third - 35 per cent - attended Oxford or Cambridge universities.
Liz Truss’ private school-educated Cabinet colleagues
The proportion of Cabinet ministers educated at comprehensive schools is lower than in Mr Johnson’s first Cabinet, in which the figure was 27 per cent.
Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “Truss continues the academic dynasty at No10 that stretches back to the start of World War Two: except for Gordon Brown, every prime minister since 1940 who went to university went to Oxford.
“Liz Truss has pitched herself as the ‘education prime minister’, representing a potentially exciting opportunity to improve the school system and opportunities for children and young people across the country.
“Yet in terms of educational background, the make-up of her Cabinet is less representative than that of her predecessor, with over two-thirds from independent schools.
“Today’s findings underline how unevenly spread opportunities to enter the most prestigious positions continue to be. Making the most of talent, regardless of their background, must be a priority.”
The proportion of independently educated ministers attending Ms Truss’ Cabinet is, however, lower than in earlier Cabinets under Conservative prime ministers John Major (71 per cent in 1992) and Margaret Thatcher (91 per cent in 1979).
Of the 31 ministers attending Ms Truss’s new Cabinet today, 35 per cent went to Oxford or Cambridge universities.
This compares with 27 per cent of Conservative MPs, 18 per cent of Labour MPs and 21 per cent of all MPs.
Ms Truss attended Roundhay state secondary school in Leeds before studying philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford.
