Sir Graham Brady has slammed Labour as a direct threat to school choice across Trafford.
The Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West, who is well-known as a champion of Trafford schools has said the proposals put forward by a group of Labour MPs and councillors who want to do away with private education are direct attack on parents’ rights.
He said: “Attacking parents’ freedom to educate their children independently is wrong.
“Instead of continuing the current improvement in state schools, Labour would take away opportunity by destroying excellent independent schools.
“Instead of extending schemes to help children from less well-off families to access fee-paying schools, they would close those opportunities to everyone.
“The fact is that areas like Trafford, which offer the best state education in the country have very low numbers of children going to fee-paying schools.
“Why can’t Labour see that it is always better to level-up to the standards of the best rather than destroying opportunity by levelling down? They would start by closing private schools and then they would come after our excellent grammar schools too.”
Over 250 Labour councillors, including a number from Trafford and the north west have signed a letter to The Times newspaper demanding the closure of private schools, to, as they claim, break ‘the stranglehold that the establishment has over Britain’, despite their own leader, Jeremy Corbyn attending a private school himself.
Commenting on the news, Trafford Conservative leader Nathan Evans, said the proposals would directly affect many parents across Trafford and their right choose which schools they wish their children to attend.
He said: “We have some fantastic state and private schools across Trafford and education attainment flourished here under the Conservatives, but if these proposals ever came about under a Labour government they would affect many parents and children here, basically denying them a choice.”
