PM 'preparing to lift ban' on new grammar schools

Theresa May is planning to lift a nearly two-decade ban on the establishment of new grammar schools, allowing for a wave of new selective schools.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have criticised the prime minister's planned move, which was reported by the Sunday Telegraph.

If the government were to reintroduce grammar schools it would constitute a major shift in education policy as they were effectively banned under Labour in 1998.

It would also endear Ms May to the Conservatives grassroots as David Cameron, Ms May's predecessor, consistently refused to heed backbench entreaties on the issue.

Quoting an unnamed government source, the Sunday Telegraph reported that Ms May could announce a new wave of selective schools as early as the October Conservative conference.

But Downing Street sources pointed to Education Secretary Justine Greening's comments last month that the issue was in her "in-tray" and that she would take time to consider it before any announcement is made.

Liberal Democrats vowed to fight any move to introduce new grammar schools, wit Tim Farron, the Lib Dem leader, saying his party would "work to block any Tory attempt to create grammar schools".

Labour's former shadow education secretary Lucy Powell said: "Reintroducing grammar schools across England would be an incredibly backward step.

"All the evidence tells us that, far from giving working class kids chances, they entrench advantage and have become the preserve of the privately-tutored."

Ms May is thought to be a supporter of new selective schools having backed a grammar school's proposal to open a new "annexe" in her Maidenhead constituency.