Report Overview

We’ve analysed the education backgrounds of Boris Johnson’s new cabinet and found that the majority of the cabinet were privately educated, although the proportion has decreased slightly from the previous reshuffle.

60%

The proportion of the new cabinet who were privately educated.

47%

The proportion of the new cabinet who attended Oxbridge.

27%

The proportion of cabinet ministers who went to both an independent school and Oxbridge.

Key Findings
  • 60% attended independent schools, a small decrease from Johnson’s previous cabinet (65%). This compares to 29% of MPs in the House of Commons and roughly 7% of the general population.
  • There has been a slight increase in the proportion educated at comprehensives, from 27% in 2020, to 33% today.
  • Of the 30 ministers attending Boris Johnson’s new cabinet, almost half (47%) went to Oxford or Cambridge universities. This compares with 27% of all Conservative MPs, 18% of Labour MPs and 24% of all MPs.
  • Just over a quarter of cabinet ministers attended both independent schools and Oxbridge.

Related Research

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Sutton Trust Cabinet Analysis 2019

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Elitist Britain 2019

24th June 2019

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