Does he favour the support from part of the Conservative party for the reintroduction of grammar schools?
Michael Gove: I have no idea from where on earth the hon. Lady gets that idea. We support good schools, wherever they exist in the state system, and oppose the Secretary of State’s attempt to undermine them. Wherever there are good schools, we will back them rather than undermine them for party political reasons. We are not selective about championing excellence. In his preface to the education White Paper, the former right hon. Member for Sedgefield argued that, “reforms must build on the freedoms that schools have increasingly received, but extend them radically. We must put parents in the driving seat for change and to underpin this change, the local authority must move from being a provider of education to being its local commissioner and the champion of parent choice.” He wanted “genuinely independent schools in the state sector”. I could not put it better myself. The case for reform is clear, urgent, modern and rejected by the Secretary of State. In his first statement to the Hou
