Downing Street shrugs off Lady Warsi's 'Eton mess' attack

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/18/lady-warsi-eton-mess-david-cameron-tories

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Downing Street has brushed off senior Conservative minister Lady Warsi's joke about the "Eton mess" at the top of the government.

David Cameron's official spokesman said he believed it was meant to be "light-hearted" when Warsi, a foreign office minister and former party chairman, held up a fake newspaper headline on ITV's Agenda programme reading "Number 10 takes Eton Mess off the agenda".

Although the mocked-up front page was a spoof, it was the second pointed reference by senior Tory minister to the public school backgrounds of David Cameron and many of his top advisers within the last week.

Warsi made the joke after backing comments made by Michael Gove, the education secretary, who last week attacked the "preposterous" number of Etonians in the prime minister's inner circle.

She told the programme: "Michael was making an incredibly serious point that it can't be right that the 7% of kids who go to independent school end up at the top tables, not just of politics, but banking and law and every other profession, and that what Michael wants to create is a first class, world class state system which means that in future years you will have more pupils from state schools, people like me, around the cabinet table, and in that I fully support Michael Gove."

"I'm not sure he [Cameron] caught the programme, as it happens," the Number 10 spokesman said. "The prime minister has spoken about the importance of wanting to see greater social mobility. That is absolutely at the heart of, for example, the government's education reforms … the prime minister appoints people he thinks are the best people to do the job. In terms of government policies, you have reforms we are making in terms of educational standards, you have the reforms announced today to further increase childcare provision, for example. Those are just some of the things we are doing in order to ensure every child can fulfil their aspirations."

On Friday Gove appeared to be taking aim at the chances of yet another Old Etonian, Boris Johnson, succeeding Cameron as party leader after the general election.

He also described the concentration of Old Etonians as "ridiculous", adding that such a bastion of privilege does not exist in any other rich country.

On Monday night The Spectator magazine reported that Cameron was not happy with Gove for speaking out on the sensitive topic for the Tories and had told him he was "bang out of order".

Asked whether Gove had been told off by the prime minister, his official spokesman did not deny this had happened, simply saying he did not know what Cameron had done at the weekend and had no plans to ask.

Jon Ashworth, a Labour shadow cabinet office minister, has said the interventions by Warsi and Gove suggest there is now "open warfare in the Conservative party".

"Sayeeda Warsi is making it clear that David Cameron is out of touch with a blatant attack on his style of government.

"Once again we are seeing the Tories fighting like ferrets in a sack rather than taking action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing hardworking people."

But communities secretary Eric Pickles told LBC 97.3 radio: "I'm anything but posh, but frankly I don't think you should judge somebody on where they came from and whether they went to Eton or Shenfield High.

"I'm not even slightly worried about people inside the government who went to Eton. There are two people with ministerial responsibilities that went to Oakbank grammar school in Keighley in my department and I'm not worried about that.

"We shouldn't be worried so much about where people come from as where they are going."