Lib Dems demand Tories scrap grammar school plans Tim Farron demanded the Conservatives scrap any plans to expand the number of grammar schools in England after the party […]

Tim Farron demanded the Conservatives scrap any plans to expand the number of grammar schools in England after the party failed to secure a majority in the election.

The Liberal Democrats leader said any move to open the first selective schools in more than 40 years would be “unacceptable” given the lack of a mandate for Theresa May.

Mrs May had made the expansion of grammar schools her key domestic policy as she sought to carve a legacy for herself other than Brexit.

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‘A modest pilot of grammar schools’

The Prime Minister is now left clinging to power after a bruising performance in last week’s election, with the vast majority of her manifesto pledges facing uncertainty as she would struggle to push them through Parliament.

But suggestions still remained that the controversial grammar school policy could go ahead.

Graham Brady, chair of the influential Conservative backbench group the 1922 Committee, claimed that small-scale pilots of grammar schools could go ahead if there was enough support in the Commons.

“If we can’t get things through Parliament we can’t do them,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Show.

“I certainly would suggest that we could look, for instance, at a rather modest sort of pilot looking at opening some state grammar schools in inner urban areas – especially where education at the moment is not offering great opportunities to people of lower income backgrounds.

“I think that is something that would command quite broad support. I even hear from friends on the Labour backbenches that they would quite like to see that approach taken.”

And he added:”So I hope we won’t have to stop altogether but certainly we will have to trim down our policies carefully to what we think Parliament will support.”

The chief proponent of the grammar school policy was Mrs May’s joint chief of staff Nick Timothy, who was forced to resign from his position in the wake of the general election.

In his Budget speech in March, Phillip Hammond announced £350m for new free schools, a proportion of which would become the first wave of the Conservatives’ grammar policy.

‘Throw grammars out the window’

But it is believed the policy is likely to disappear following Mr Timothy’s departure.

And Mr Farron warned: “Even a modest extension of grammar schools is still unacceptable. It is a betrayal of the principle of comprehensive education. It needs to be thrown out of the window.

“This election delivered a message to the Conservatives, people do not want to go in this direction. Theresa May needs to axe her plan for grammar schools like its architect Nick Timothy has been axed.

And he added: “People want a country that is fairer not the rose tinted spectacles of the 1950s.”