May: Grammar schools to end 'selection by postcode and wealth'
Theresa May will unveil plans for a new wave of grammar schools on Friday, that will end "selection by house price" and give every child the chance to go to a good school.
In her first speech since becoming prime minister, she will say the "arbitrary rule" which prevents new selective schools from being opened has "sacrificed children's potential because of dogma and ideology".
Under her "ambitious package" of education reforms, new selective schools will have to meet targets on how many pupils they have from poor families or set up new open access schools and help failing institutions.
The controversial proposals will also allow other schools to introduce selection "in some circumstances".
In addition, universities that want to charge higher fees would be made to set up a new school or sponsor an existing underperforming school.
Mrs May will claim that back-door selection by postcode and wealth is "unfair", adding that every child deserves "the best start in life, regardless of their background".
She will say her proposals are about "being unapologetic for our belief in social mobility" and "making this country a true meritocracy - a country that works for everyone."
Mrs May told the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories on Wednesday that the current state school system allows wealthier parents to ensure a place for their children at high-performing schools by buying homes in the catchment area.
Education Secretary Justine Greening told MPs on Thursday that she was "open-minded" on the issue of academic selection, but there would be "no return to the simplistic, binary choice of the past where schools separate children into winners and losers, successes or failures".
But the Government's social mobility tsar, Labour former Cabinet minister Alan Milburn, said that grammars could be "a social mobility disaster".
Labour shadow Angela Rayner warned MPs that an expansion of grammar schools would "entrench inequality and disadvantage".