Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, reacting to the Government’s response to the Education Select Committee report and proposal of a new Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said:

“This debacle is just one more example of Theresa May’s total failure to tackle her own ‘burning injustices’.

“Ministers have dragged their feet for six months, and even now the Commission has no new powers and no new board.

“The Government ignored the select committee’s warning that the Commission needs stronger tools to do its job and even a senior Tory MP now thinks that ministers have ‘sadly failed’.

“The next Labour government will transform people’s life chances, building an economy for the many, not the few.”