Member

Let me turn to new clause 7, which I mentioned during my intervention on the shadow Minister, in relation to private schools—a last-ditch effort to highlight the plight of the independent school. It is not designed to help the wealthy elite. The families I know who send their children to independent faith schools are not the sort to drive a Rolls or have a massive palatial house; they are ordinary people who scrimp and save to send their children to those schools. They are not ones to demand that their children have access to a polo field or a swimming pool—although there is nothing wrong with that for parents who can afford it; I am not criticising anyone who can. My pleas are for small faith schools, and for international students who would be swallowed up by the mainstream system.