Shami Chakrabarti blasted the Government’s grammar school policy - but failed to reveal her child went to Dulwich College, where Nigel Farage was a former pupil
A SENIOR Labour figure was accused of stunning hypocrisy by talking up comprehensive education after having sent her own son to an £18,000-a-year private school.
Shami Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney General and a top Jeremy Corbyn ally, used her appearance on last night's Question Time show to blast the Government’s grammar school policy.
And she said her state school education in North London was good enough for her to have a successful legal career and end up in the House of Lords.
However the peer failed to reveal to the audience in Reading that her own child went to the prestigious Dulwich College in South London, where Nigel Farage was a former pupil.
The 15-year-old was placed by Baroness Chakrabarti and her ex-husband into the selective school, which runs counter to the passionate speech she gave about state education last night.
Asked about the Tory plan to expanding grammar schools, she said her state education was “one of the best things that ever happened to me”.
She added: “In terms of class background and parents and it worked very well for me. What we want is the best for everyone's children.
“Why not have grammar schools for everyone - otherwise known as comprehensive schools.
“There's still a problem with telling children at 11 - you pass and you fail and people struggle with that all their lives.”
But viewers watching at home hit back, with Guardian journalist Suzanne Moore tweeting: “Nice speech but Shami doesn't send her kid to a state school though does she?”
And the actress Frances Barber, a Labour voter, wrote on social media: “Shami Chakrabarti says she went to a comprehensive and is now in ermine and on Question Time.
“So why does she send her kid to a private school?”
Another tweeter, Ben Brittain, said it was “horrendous hypocrisy” from the Labour frontbencher.
He added: “Why is her child allowed that opportunity but not a gifted and hard-working lad or girl whose parents aren’t blessed with the privilege of wealth?”
Ms Chakrabarti follows in the footsteps of her Shadow Cabinet colleague and close friend Diane Abbott.
The Shadow Home Secretary was pilloried back in 2003 when it was revealed she sent her son to the elite City of London School, where fees were around £10,000 at the time.
She had previously criticised the-then Labour leader Tony Blair for sending his youngest son Euan to the private London Oratory school.
