Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, commenting on the EPI report on trends in educational attainment and disadvantage, said:

“The findings of this report are deeply concerning but unfortunately come as no surprise. 

“If you cut school budgets and push out  teachers, as the Tories have done, then life in school will become even harder for the most disadvantaged kids. It is no wonder that we are still generations away from closing the attainment gap.

"The Tories’ key election pledge was to bring back grammar schools and segregate our children, a move that would make the situation even worse. A Labour Government would deliver an education system for the many, not the few.”