Report Overview
This study looks at the educational profile of members of the Houses of Lord and Commons. It finds that almost one third of MPs and two-thirds of the Lords have been to independent schools, compared to 7% in the wider population, and that 27% of the Commons and 42% of the Lords were educated at Oxbridge.
Key Findings
House of Commons:
- Overall, almost one third (32%) of current MPs attended independent schools, which educate just 7% of the population. Seventy-two percent went to university, including 43% who attended one of 13 leading universities and over a quarter (27%) who went to Oxbridge.
- Broken down by party, Conservative MPs were most likely to have attended private schools (59% having done so) while Labour MPs were the least likely (18%).
- Conservative MPs were also more likely to have been educated at a leading university: almost two-thirds (63%) attended one of the ‘Sutton 13’, including 46% at Oxford or Cambridge. This compares with one-third (33%) of Labour MPs from the Sutton 13, half of whom graduated from Oxbridge.
- Those MPs holding offices within the three main parties2 are more likely to have been to independent schools (42%) than MPs on the backbenches (29%), and are also more likely to have attended Oxbridge (34% compared to 24%).
- In particular, Labour MPs who serve as members of the Government are more likely to have been to private school (25%) than Labour backbenchers (16%), and are more likely to have been to Oxbridge (23% compared to 15%). Sixty-two percent of officeholders within the Conservative Opposition were from independent schools, and 46% were Oxbridge graduates.
- Less than half (42%) of MPs were educated in comprehensive schools, with the remainder having attended either state grammar schools (25%) or independent schools (32%), many of which are also academically selective.
- The rate of attendance at selective state schools is highest on the Labour benches (29%) and lowest on the Liberal Democrat (20%). The representation of selective state schools has fallen amongst younger MPs, who were educated in a principally comprehensive system.
House of Lords
- The Lords were almost twice as likely as their Commons counterparts to have been to independent school (62% compared to 32%), and the private school attendance was more pronounced on the Conservative (79%) than the Labour (34%) benches.
- Ninety-eight percent of the remaining hereditary Lords were privately-educated, compared to 56% of appointed peers.
- As might be expected given their age, of the Lords educated in the state sector more than half (55%) had been to state grammar schools, compared to just over a third (37%) of the state-educated members of the Commons. Grammar schools were represented most among appointed peers, and Labour and Liberal Democrat Lords.
- Lords were as likely as MPs to have been to university, but 56% had attended one of the ‘Sutton 13’ universities, compared to 43% of MPs.
- Overall university attendance levels were similar across all three parties, and between Appointed and Hereditary Peers. As in the case of MPs, Conservative
Peers were the most likely to have been to Oxbridge, and Labour Peers the least.