Shami Chakrabarti was accused of hypocrisy last night after launching a women-only degree fund – despite girls doing better than boys at university.

The baroness, who was handed a peerage by Jeremy Corbyn last year, established the £500,000 bursary at Essex University, where she is chancellor – and where there are already more female students than male.

She claimed the initiative would close the ‘education gender gap’ and help end ‘gender injustice’ in society.

Shami Chakrabarti has established a £500,000 bursary at Essex University, where she is chancellor

But official figures show teenage girls are 35 per cent more likely to go to university than boys, with white working-class boys the most disadvantaged group.

Tory MP Philip Davies, a member of the Commons women and equalities committee, said Lady Chakrabarti’s claim about what the fund would achieve was a ‘sham’.

‘If she was properly committed to closing the education gap – which is a noble aim – this fund would focus almost entirely on helping white working-class boys,’ he added. ‘The fact it is not raises the question about whether she is genuinely interested in closing the gap or just wants to hand out another politically correct dollop of money.

‘If she wants to have a fund dedicated to helping promote females, then she’s within her rights to do so, but she should be honest about it … don’t pretend it’s about closing some imaginary gap.

‘If Shami Chakrabarti is really interested in increasing equality in education then she needs to go and do some proper research to find out what the problem is and then focus her efforts on helping white working-class boys.’

Officially opening the Women of the Future fund, Lady Chakrabarti said the scheme could ‘change the world’.

She has said the aim of the initiative is to close the ‘education gender gap’ and help end ‘gender injustice’ in society

WHAT ABOUT WHITE, WORKING CLASS LADS? In her first speech as Prime Minister, Theresa May spoke of the injustice of white working-class boys being the least likely group to enter university. Far more young women go to university than men, according to official figures. The gender gulf in university entry rates is growing in women’s favour and has reached record levels, admissions service Ucas said. This year, 36.8 per cent of female 18-year-olds went to university – compared with 27.2 per cent of males of that age. This equates to 37,000 fewer men than if the entry rates were the same for both sexes. Mary Curnock Cook, head of Ucas, has said the trend is ‘acting to stall progress in reducing inequality overall’. The pattern continues with second degrees, as almost 60 per cent of the postgraduate student population are women, according to the latest statistics. At GCSE, the gap is the widest in 14 years. Girls lead by 8.9 percentage points in gaining A* to C. This year, 71.3 per cent of girls’ entries were at least a C, compared with 62.4 per cent of boys’. Advertisement

The Labour peer, who sends her son to an £18,000-a-year private school, said: ‘Gender injustice is so embedded in our society and our world, that sometimes we stop seeing it.

‘We accept the rows of men sitting in parliaments or the latest gender health, education or pay gap figures with a shrug and a sigh.

‘It’s time to wake up, give ourselves a shake and confront those content with the status quo.’

The fund will provide bursaries for 25 women to study for Master’s degrees. Lady Chakrabarti said it would create opportunities for women who are ‘willing to challenge conventions and push boundaries across the world’.

According to the Complete University Guide, Essex University already has a preponderance of female students – 54 per cent, compared with 46 per cent male.

Figures from the university application service Ucas show teenage girls are a third more likely to go to university than boys.

Lady Chakrabarti sends her son to Dulwich College, a top private school in London

Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook warned this year that boys from poor homes were the big losers in education. She added: ‘The evidence is clear. Girls are doing better throughout primary, secondary and higher education than boys.

‘Poor, white boys are the most disadvantaged group in entry to higher education, and the gap is getting wider.’

The row is the latest to hit Lady Chakrabarti since she accepted Mr Corbyn’s invitation to carry out an ‘independent’ review of Labour’s anti-Semitism problem.

The resulting report was branded a ‘whitewash’ after it refused to endorse lifetime bans for Labour members found to have voiced anti-Semitic views.

It then emerged that the former director of civil rights group Liberty had been offered a peerage by Mr Corbyn, who later appointed her to the position of his shadow attorney general.

Lady Chakrabarti faced further embarrassment when it emerged she sends her 13-year-old son to Dulwich College, a top private school in London whose previous pupils include Nigel Farage.

The University of Essex last night insisted that the fund was aimed at overseas students from countries where women still lag behind men at university. A source said the university plans to launch initiatives at attracting more working class British men this year.

In a statement, Lady Chakrabarti described the scheme as a ‘huge success’. She added: ‘Women of the Future will help women who do not have the same educational opportunities as we enjoy in the UK.