Educational background of Andy Burnham’s cabinet

[Wintom]

This makes interesting reading. More women in this cabinet than ever before.
https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/sutton-trust-cabinet-analysis-2026/

Only 8% of Starmer’s first cabinet were privately educated - because 92% went to comprehensives. The figure stuck in my head because for once it was (very nearly) in line with the actual population.

So, it means in this cabinet, the number of private school educated ministers has risen from that 8%.

The asterisks explain they don’t have the school info for one member of the cabinet.

If you look in the actual report it tells you the schools themselves - interesting mix.

Yes, I agree with @Visiblyabove25 about the first paragraph. For me the confusing bit was that “this” refers to the number in the second sentence rather than the first.

If you look at the extreme right of the bar chart with the Sutton Trust data, “% of cabinet privately educated over time” (screenshot will appear) it shows 8% for Starmer and 21% for Burnham.

For some reason Burnham’s bar is in a different colour from all the others.

Lots of people do a mix of both - how are they counted? If you had any private education at all are you counted as being privately educated, even if it was just a year?

It says secondary school. I’ve looked at the list of schools, which VisiblyAbove85 also mentions, and there’s only one per person, and none of them says “sixth form college.”
Where I live it’s reasonably common to change from private to go to the excellent local state sixth form college after y12, but also for some students to change to a private school’s sixth form or a tutorial college after being state educated to 16 but perhaps none of the Cabinet moved schools for sixth form. None of their schools is within a 50 mile drive of here.

The missing person from the list is Anneliese Midgley, the Chief Whip. Her school is described as being in the North West but its name and category is “unclear.”

I was curious about this too - I did a quick google & it looks like it’s where they were educated from ages 11-16.

I have a feeling I read somewhere John Healey, for example, might’ve gone to a state high school, but a private sixth form…

I’ve just googled Anneliese Midgley. Her Wikipedia page says she moved to Paris when she was 17 years old and worked in a bookshop.

Excellent.

It says she credits her father’s secure unionised job with enabling them to “eventually purchase a home.”

I am not convinced either by the arguments that politicians need a business background or that ministers should have direct experience in the area they represent. What troubles me (and, dare I say it, Rupert Lowe too) is the virtue made in the Civil Service of generalists, and the slow pace at which most things move. If Civil Service departments recruited specialists, on five+ year contracts and from the private sector, it would help move a sluggish machine to a place where delivering on budget and to an agreed deadline was second nature.

The state failures on Hillsborough, Orgreave, rape gangs, the Post Office and infected blood are characterised by cover-up. The Civil Service is stable, unlike governments, so it must take most of the blame.

What we have now are massive overspend, over-consultation that threatens deadlines, and group decision-making that makes no one person really responsible. The Civil Service employs many capable people, many of whom could be deployed much more constructively. The new Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo seems to be on the case and Andy Burnham shows signs of radicalism so things may improve.

As for Oxbridge, winning a place and staying the course are not mean achievements, but more STEM would be good. I don't think anyone should regret politicians having been educated at elite institutions.

John Healey, Wikipedia.

“Born in Wakefield, Healey was educated first at Lady Lumley's School followed by Reigate Grammar School[1] and St Peter's School, York. ”

Lady Lumley’s is an 11-18 state school. Reigate Grammar and St Peter’s York are private, which might confirm the idea that it’s the 11+ education, or maybe even the 13+ as the normal age of entry to many public schools is 13.
It’s unusual but not unheard of to attend sixth form at two different establishments, and this might be for good practical reasons like his parents moving from Yorkshire to Reigate and then back to Yorkshire.

@Friendlygingercat , The population of Eton is less than 5000. Not many people are from there.

Correction: in my post at 19:27 it says that there was only one school given per person in the Sutton Trust list.
That’s wrong, John Healey is listed at two (Wikipedia says three), as my post at 19:53 mentions.

Ah, okay - so maybe he’s the only one to have attended both. I guess there probably aren’t enough attending both to make a massive statistical difference either way.

The bar chart you posted earlier is really interesting.