Ruth Kelly: A lesson in hypocrisy

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Ruth Kelly has been branded a hypocrite after choosing private school over state school for her son

Ruth Kelly has been accused of blatant double standards after it emerged that she is the Cabinet Minister sending her son to a £17,000 a year private school.

The former Education Secretary launched an emotional defence of her decision to remove the nine-year old from his state primary.

More here:

• The state school the minister rejected

• The private school Ruth Kelly chose

She said he had "substantial learning difficulties" and she was acting on professional advice.

But her local council in East London insisted its schools had been judged among the best in the country - including for children with special needs.

The disclosure left the Communities Secretary open to accusations that even the best on offer in the state sector is not good enough for her own child. It plunged her into conflict with Left-wing Labour MPs, who said she should have set an example by keeping her son in the state system - of which she was in charge until eight months ago.

Charges of hypocrisy are reinforced by the fact that Labour has pursued a policy of putting children with special learning needs into mainstream schools.

Dozens of special schools have closed as a result - making it impossible for most parents to get the kind of schooling for their children which Miss Kelly is able to afford with her £137,000 salary.

More than 100 such schools have shut their doors since Labour came to power in 1997, according to the Conservatives.

The minister's decision to send her son to a private school was revealed in the Mail on Sunday. It and the Daily Mail decided not to disclose her identity to protect her son, but the Labour-supporting Daily Mirror "outed" her yesterday.

Friends said the minister, a mother of four who herself benefited from a private education, had wrestled with her conscience over her son's schooling and realised she would face fierce criticism if it became public.

She insisted that her son would eventually return to the state system, saying: "He will attend this school for a couple of years before he begins at a state secondary school."

The boy is understood to suffer from dyslexia and dyspraxia, a condition which affects co- ordination, as well as other learning difficulties. After his removal from English Martyrs Roman Catholic School in East London, he is due to start at his new school within days.

A boarding establishment based in a country house in the Home Counties, it describes its main purpose as preparing dyslexic and dyspraxic children for exams to independent secondary schools. It also specialises in teaching gifted pupils. In some cases, pupils may fall into both categories.

Yesterday morning, the BBC quoted "friends" of Miss Kelly as suggesting her local authority, Tower Hamlets Council, was ready to pay for her son's private education. She was portrayed as having nobly declined the offer to save the taxpayer money.

But by the time her statement was issued in the afternoon, the council had made clear that it had not offered to fund private schooling.

It insisted it was "proud" of the quality of education it offered and said it had a "strong track record" for helping children with a "wide range" of learning needs to succeed.

"We provide a first class service for the borough's children," it said in a statement. "We are confident that our schools are well resourced and provide high-quality education for all learners, including those with special needs."

Miss Kelly's defence of her decision suggested that in fact, it had been driven by the minister and her husband, local government worker Derek Gadd. She said she had acted on "professional advice, which the local authority accepts" - a clear indication that outside expertise had been called in.

Her son had been assessed as having "particular and substantial" learning difficulties and needing specialist support as soon as possible. "Like any parent, my first thought was to do the right thing for my child," she said.

"I am placing my son in a school that will be able to meet his particular needs. It is not uncommon for pupils with substantial learning difficulties to spend some time outside the state sector to help them progress - sometimes this is paid for by the local authority.

"In my case, I have not and will not seek the help of the local authority in meeting these costs."

Miss Kelly said her other three children would continue to be educated in the state sector.

"I appreciate that some will disagree with my decision. I understand why, but we all face difficult choices as parents and I, like any mother, want to do the right thing for my son - that has been my sole motivation.

"Bringing up children in the public eye is never easy. It is particularly difficult when dealing with details of individual circumstances which any family would want to deal with privately."

Miss Kelly's child is not thought to have had a Statement of Special Needs produced by the local authority - the usual course when parents are battling to get extra provision in the state sector.

Last night her office refused to discuss the issue.

Senior Labour backbencher Dr Ian Gibson accused Miss Kelly of taking the "easy way out". He said: "The hardest way is to fight within the system to improve the system, not only for your own child but for other children too.

"There are ways to do it within the state system."

Dr Gibson said he had battled for special provision for one of his own children at a state school. "I never for one moment thought about spending money on the easy way out. I get well paid as an MP, but lots of other people haven't got anything like that salary."

As MP for Bolton West, Miss Kelly has the smallest majority of any minister in the Cabinet - just 2,000 over the Conservatives at the last election.

She is said to be eyeing the safer Bolton South East constituency held by Dr Brian Iddon, who is standing down at the next election. Dr Iddon said: 'I don't think this will go down very well in Bolton. It's up to Ruth to defend her position.'

Former chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead accused the government of double standards.

'As a parent I'm not against private education and I'm not against parents making a choice,' he said.

'But I am against the hypocrisy of government ministers who say one thing to the rest of us and then do something different themselves.'

Tony Blair's official spokesman said: 'What the Prime Minister supports absolutely is the right of parents to make choices about their children's education which are best suited to their children's needs, irrespective of who their parents are or what job they do.'

Conservative leader David Cameron also defended Mrs Kelly's right to choose, saying he did not think she was being hypocritical. 'If they were going to abolish private education, then it would be hypocrisy, but they're not,' he said.

'People should recognise that politicians, like everyone else, are parents first and will act in the best interests of their children.'

Mr Cameron, whose son Ivan suffers from cerebral palsy, added: 'I'd like my children to go to a state school - that's my intention - but you must always do the right thing as a parent.'

 

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