15:11

David Meller, the Presidents Club co-chairman who resigned as a Department for Education director yesterday after the revelations about sexual harassment at the club’s charity dinner, has now taken leave of absence from his own trust, the Meller Educational Trust, which runs several schools. In a statement it said:

The trust is absolutely committed to equality of opportunity and respect for all members of society. We are appalled to hear reports of what happened at the Presidents Club dinner. We, as trustees, wish to express our sympathy to those women who have been so badly treated. David Meller is taking leave of absence as a trustee with immediate effect. The trustees will continue to support the academies within the trust.

To make things worse, Meller’s eponymous multi-academy trust had miserable results in today’s DfE league tables, with pupil progress “well below the national average”.

