When Theresa May became Prime Minister, she promised to address the appalling under-performance of white working class children, a group shamefully neglected by successive governments determined to focus on non-white Britons. Mrs May was right, something underlined this week by figures showing that such children, already the group least likely to go to university, have fallen still further behind.

Sadly, one of the proposed remedies is mistaken. Bristol University will admit children from under-performing schools and poorer households on the basis of lower exam grades than those it expects of children from more fortunate backgrounds. The university’s intention is good, but its policy is wrong.