Millionaire Tory donors join grammar schools revolt against Cameron

Furious millionaire donors will have a showdown with education spokesman David Willetts in protest at the controversial policy decision.

He will be hauled before them next month to explain why the Tories have turned against academic selection.

The Conservatives' biggest donor, Stuart Wheeler, told the Daily Mail he wanted to be at the meeting to tell Mr Willetts that the policy was wrong.

A number of other businessmen who have given cash will also be at the private summit.

Party chiefs yesterday tried to play down the significance of the meeting, saying it was part of a "regular series of discussions".

A spokesman said: "We have invited a number of donors to meet David Willetts next month as part of a regular series of discussions with shadow cabinet members.

"It will be an opportunity for them to voice their thoughts on the education debate and we expect there will be a lively exchange of views."

But a senior Tory figure said yesterday that the policy U-turn had angered several donors and they had demanded the meeting.

No donor has threatened to withdraw money, but the row could cause businessmen to be more reluctant to give the party money in future, the source said.

He added: "There is considerable alarm at the abandonment of selection.

"A number of donors who are in contact with the party think grammar schools should be a source of pride in our education system. They are furious and want answers."

Mr Wheeler, the spread-betting millionaire, once donated £5million to the Tories - their largest-ever single gift. Like the Tory leader, he was educated at Eton but he is a staunch defender of grammars.

He raised concerns when Mr Cameron signalled the policy change in one of his first speeches as leader in January 2006, and again at a lunch with Mr Willetts six months ago.

Mr Wheeler added yesterday: "This policy is wrong. Grammar schools have raised the standards of education.

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"If there is going to be a meeting I would quite like to be there."

There was speculation last year that an anonymous donor cancelled a £250,000 gift because of concerns at Mr Cameron's policies - although this has never been confirmed.

The current row was sparked a week ago when Mr Willetts said grammar schools "entrenched advantage" and did not help children from poor backgrounds.

Another Conservative MP and a former frontbencher, Mark Field, joined the revolt by telling Toryradio.com that Mr Willetts's position "sounds like Left-wing thinking".

Mr Field added: "One can either take the cock-up or conspiracy theory. I can't imagine he didn't think through this process."

As the row continued to rage yesterday, Tony Blair taunted the Tory leader at Prime Minister's Questions.

Meanwhile Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said grammars do more to help children from the poorest families.

He said he would not want to close the remaining 164 selective grammars in England but suggested that every one of them could form partnerships with weaker schools nearby.

Sir Cyril told MPs that only about one per cent of pupils in grammar schools were from families which were so poor that they were entitled to free school meals.

But he told the Commons Education Select Committee that one grammar school in Gloucester is "going out on to the council estates to identify very able children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds".

And he gave another example of a grammar school in Reading which is working with an "underperforming" school nearby.