'Nearly 60%' of parents would send their children to private school if they could afford it

Fifty-seven per cent said they would go private if they could afford the fees - up from 51 per cent in 1997 and 48 per cent four years ago.

A change of heart among Labour voters was behind the increase, according to the Mori poll for the Independent Schools Council.

Poll: Record numbers of parents want to send their children to private schools that enforce classroom discipline (picture posed by models)

It is revealed today that private school pupils are tightening their grip on top universities including Oxford and Cambridge.

More state school students are going on to higher education - but the most prestigious institutions are accepting fewer of them.

Just 53 per cent of entrants to Oxford in 2006 attended state schools - down from 53.7 per cent in 2005. At Cambridge, the proportion has fallen from 57.9 per cent to 57.6 per cent.

Other leading institutions recording a decline or no change in recruitmentof state pupils include Bristol, Durham, Manchester - and Prince William's alma mater, St Andrews.

The state system educates 93 per cent of children but dons have complained that too few achieve top grades in traditional A-levels.

The figures, produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, will dismay ministers who have waged an eight-year campaign to close the social class gap at university.

Today's figures also show that the number of state school pupils at university increased overall, from 86.9 per cent to 87.2 per cent.

But leaders of the Russell Group of 20 elite universities said students from state schools and working-class backgrounds remained under-represented due to a combination of 'low aspirations, lack of advice and guidance and most importantly under-achievement at school'.

Wendy Piatt, its director-general, said: 'These are complex problems which our universities alone cannot solve. Quite simply, we cannot consider students who do not apply.'