Keir Starmer went to private school

[Asking4afrend]

AIBU to be shocked that Keir Starmer went to private school? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. So he enjoyed an excellent education which increased his social mobility and then wants to bring down the system that helped him, even when they gave him a 100% bursary so that his parents didn’t have to pay the fees?

This is from wiki:

Starmer passed the 11-plus examination and gained entry to Reigate Grammar School, which at the time was a voluntary-aidedselective grammar school.[1][12] The school converted into an independent fee-paying school in 1976, while he was a student. The terms of the conversion were such that his parents were not required to pay for his schooling until he turned 16, and when he reached that point, the school, by now a charity, awarded him a bursary that allowed him to complete his education there without any parental contribution.

I only found out about this today when I was googling the school for another reason and looked up the alumni. What a hypocrite. You didn’t hear about this in the election during all his “my father was a toolmaker” speeches.

So what?

Yabu

It's a well known fact. Anyone shocked by it is obviously uninterested and uninformed about politics

Why should he have left his school at 6th form he would have been what 17/18 and did his A levels at his school where was he supposed to go?

My husband comes from very humble roots and worked his socks off at his comprehensive school to go to an excellent university. He is a classic case of social mobility so I do believe that everyone should be given a chance in life. But then not trash that leg up afterwards.

Well that's a lie. This is the least privately educated cabinet ever.

'Starmer’s cabinet had already set records for the proportion of state educated Secretaries of State, with data compiled by the social mobility charity The Sutton Trust at the time of the election showing that Haigh was the only one they classed as independently educated.'

After Louise Haigh resigned, she was replaced by Heidi Alexander who was state educated. Anneliese Dodds, who attended Cabinet but wasn't a Secretary of State was privately educated but she has since resigned.

Do you think his parents should have made him leave and refuse the scholarship when the school went private?
Lots of clever kids of his generation, and the previous one, went to grammar school. For most it was the only life changing opportunity they had. I am not a big fan of Starmer but he has never made a secret of his education. The tool maker thing is a bit disingenuous, I agree.
David Lammy, for example, has had a very expensive education based on scholarships too (and he is convinced that a man can grow a cervix so clearly there were some gaps).

And yet it’s completely fart to disrupt the education of thousands of kids with a mid year VAT change (now discovered via an FOI request to be intentionally timed for maximum disruption)?

Fair. Not fart 🙄

‘He could have left at sixth form’ clearly his crystal ball wasn’t working when at the age of 16 he failed to realise that he would one day be prime minister and would need to answer ridiculous criticisms such as this.
He was 16. It probably wasn’t his choice to make.He probably hadn’t fully formed his political opinions about state vs private yet.
plenty to criticise him for but this is clutching at straws.

There have also been lots of MN posts about it previously!

So everything. If he was politically active in his teenage years then he knew what he was doing.

It’s absurd to criticise him for which sixth form he attended.

@Asking4afrend Its very nice you married your husband despite his 'humble roots'.

Do you not think his parents had some say in the matter rather than say he could have left.

There are many posters on here who think he should have adhered to his Labour principles and insisted on changing schools at the age of 14.

His parents at no point paid fees for him. No one chose for him to go to a private school. What exactly is your beef, OP?

I went to a similar school - G & L in Hammersmith. The schools had to either go private or go comprehensive. Nothing changed for the students already there.

No fan of Keir but you’re being ridiculous.

Why is anyone surprised ? Dianne Abbott sent her kids to private school despite campaigning against them for years. Politicians do what they want for their own families, they just don’t want you to have it for yours.

Maybe that's why he put VAT on private schools because he knows first had they're businesses and should be treated as such.
Never happier than when he did that.

@Asking4afrend you're just embarrassing yourself now

This is desperate stuff. I don't agree with the VAT change largely because I don't think it will raise very much money and won't affect social mobility, but the fact that Keir Starmer went to a grammar school that went private while he was there is (a) extremely well known so not a shocking revelation and (b) not relevant to anything he's deciding as PM.

I couldn't care less what school he went to. People grow and develop thier thinking during adult life. I don't think how I did during sixth form. I entered the real world and was exposed to a whole range of views and experiences that shaped me.

I don't agree with his party"s decision to add VAT to fees and change business rates, and change NI, in one go, mid year, to a sector that is struggling.

But I couldn't give two hoots about this 'pulling the ladder up' nonsense.

Voluntary aided schools were essentially private institutions that received their funding from the state, but had huge autonomy. A shift in government policy forced many to choose whether to be more heavily controlled by the Department of Education or go private. Consequently, particularly in areas that abolished grammar schools, they went private. Equivalent schools in areas like Kent (not far from Reigate) remained in the state system because they could continue as grammar schools.

The vast majority of pupils don’t have grammar as an option … hence those bright children being educated at their learning speed in top sets in comprehensives.

In Starmer’s day the segregation of schools was often aligned to the O Level / CSE differences and curricula.

Now grammar, ‘high school’ and comprehensive students of all abilities their the same exam. Same curriculum.

Why on earth would he leave a good school at the age of 16 when he could stay for free? You also talk about it like he had any agency in it. He was a child.

His parents sent him to a grammar school.

You’re looking for something to be outraged about. There’s nothing outrageous about this.