Now every cabinet minister was mostly state-educated between 11 and 16

Following the resignation of Louise Haigh this morning, every serving cabinet minister in Keir Starmer’s administration spent the majority of their 11-16 education at comprehensive school.

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.

The previous record low was in Attlee’s postwar government, in which one in four cabinet ministers had gone to private school.

But Heidi Alexander, who replaced Haigh today, was comprehensive-educated.

Anneliese Dodds is the only other privately educated minister who attends cabinet, but she is not a Secretary of State.

Keir Starmer’s selective state school became independent two years after he joined, but he remained state-funded.

The Sutton Trust has previously said that “although both Defence Secretary John Healey and Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn have spent some time in private education, most of their education between the ages of 11-16 was in fact..in comprehensive schools”.

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