In a major Fabian lecture on education sponsored by the Sutton Trust, on the eve of the publication of the government’s five year plan, Tony Blair set out the principles behind the next stage of education reform.

The Prime Minister argued that radical reform was necessary to raise standards further and to tackle “the entrenched three-tierism of the past: excellence for a minority, mediocrity for the majority, outright failure at the bottom”. The event was held at the Institute of Education, University of London.