Diane Abbott, who sent her to private school, said she supports the party’s move to abolish them

Universities face quotas on the number of privately educated students they can admit after Labour vowed to begin abolishing independent schools in government.

Labour’s annual conference has endorsed the radical plan to end “hierarchy, elitism and selection in education” by “integrating all private schools into the state sector”.

In its first budget Labour would withdraw charitable status, as well as “all other public subsidies and tax privileges” from private schools. Other early measures would include forcing the “endowments, investments and properties held by private schools” to be “redistributed democratically and fairly across the country’s educational institutions”.

Under the plan the proportion of private school students admitted to universities would be capped at the proportion who attend private schools across the UK, which is currently 7%