Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said that white working-class children must possess either “exceptional” talent or “luck” to achieve success in Britain today.
Ms Phillipson criticised the “distant dream” of social mobility, arguing it has failed this demographic by only lifting a “lucky few” – including herself – out of poverty.
Her comments follow an independent inquiry that concluded “once-in-a-generation reforms” are urgently required to address the persistently low attainment among white working-class pupils.
This group is identified as the worst-performing large demographic within England’s school system.
The inquiry highlighted that 1.25 million white British pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) in England consistently experience some of the weakest educational outcomes across all stages.
Speaking at the launch of the inquiry at the House of Lords on Monday evening, Ms Phillipson said: “As this report makes so depressingly clear, the distant dream of social mobility has failed a whole new generation of white working-class kids.
“The lucky few plucked from poverty used to rationalise the writing off of whole communities.
“The same logic that was used over the years to ignore nine failing state schools just because the 10th was a good grammar.
“The same logic that waved away the vast underrepresentation of certain groups at university because there was the odd outreach program.
“It’s an approach that tells white working-class kids that to succeed, they have to either be exceptional or exceptionally lucky.”
Ms Phillipson also took a jibe at Kemi Badenoch after the pair became embroiled in a spat last week when the Tory Leader called her a “spiteful class warrior” during Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Education Secretary was seen to shake her head as Mrs Badenoch said she “taxed private schools to pay for more teachers but the number of teachers has gone down”.
“It turns out appointing a spiteful class warrior as Education Secretary was a disaster,” she added, suggesting outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had been “let down by her incompetence”.
Speaking to an audience of teachers and education professionals on Monday, Ms Phillipson said: “My journey from council house to Cabinet is, in one way, deeply hopeful.
“It’s proof that in this country, people from my background can succeed, and occasionally do succeed.
“Yes, even spiteful class warriors like me.”
However, Ms Phillipson, who grew up in a council house in Washington, Tyne and Wear, said her own success should not be used to deflect from the struggles most working-class children face.
“I think it’s vital that we don’t use stories like mine to obscure the wider story of working-class communities,” she said.
“Because let me make one thing clear: I was lucky.”
She also said teachers should not succumb to the “soft bigotry” of assuming white working-class children should not pursue academic careers at university.
“We’ve got to support them with the route that works for them, with genuine and real choices,” she added.
Ms Phillipson also said the social contract that promises success in return for hard work had been broken and that it was not surprising young men then turned to “online hate”.
“No matter how hard you work, no matter who you are, you’ll get on. That’s at the core of our social contract,” she said.
“But this report lays bare the fact that those promises to so many people in our country have been broken.
“And if we can’t show that young man a path to success, then we shouldn’t be surprised when he strays from it, especially when he’s bombarded day after day with those easy answers of online hate, the corrupting poison of intolerance.”
The Education Secretary said white working-class boys are not aspirational because they cannot see home ownership or employment in their futures.
“Even a white working-class boy growing up today on the same street that I did, he just can’t see the point in going to school at all.
“His parents perhaps didn’t see the point either. It didn’t work for them. It didn’t work for his grandparents. So, why would it work for him?
“He can’t see the path through to a good job, the respect that comes with it, some money in his pocket, the chance to buy his own home, to start a family.”
Among the inquiry’s main findings were that the education system is not set up to serve white working-class children and families, that these communities have different perceptions than schools on what constitutes success and that higher education is often seen as inaccessible or irrelevant to them.
The report also highlighted how vocational and technical routes, particularly apprenticeships, are valued highly by white working-class families who describe access as limited, highly competitive and unevenly distributed.
Researchers found white working-class pupils are “disproportionately” suspended and excluded from school and are less likely to attend regularly and more likely to be severely absent.
The inquiry found that white working-class parents were more likely than other groups to say that their child feeling anxious about going to school was an acceptable reason not to attend.
Focus group participants linked mental health concerns to the “increasing role” of phones, screens and social media in young people’s lives.
The inquiry recommended extending 30 hours of free childcare to all disadvantaged families who are not currently eligible, while making reading fluency a national priority for white working-class children.
It also suggested reducing financial risks associated with further and higher study and introducing free access to local public transport for all under-21s.
