New grammar schools will improve the prospect of white working-class boys in Britain’s worst-performing area, a report commissioned by a Labour council has suggested.

A major study, commissioned by Knowsley Council, Merseyside, said the introduction of selective schools in the area should be adopted to transform the performance among an ethnic group that has the lowest level of educational attainment.

Knowsley, on the outskirts of Liverpool, is the second-poorest borough in England, and over 95 per cent of the resident population is white British.

With roughly 150,000 residents, it is also the worst-performing area in the country for educational attainment with fewer than 50 per cent of pupils achieving the Government’s benchmark of five A*-C-grade GCSEs.

ResPublica, the think tank which led the report, said white British children are the least likely to do well in school out of all pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The report said Knowsley has a white, working-class "monoculture", with strong bonds of extended families but little contact with others from different social backgrounds or ethnicities and "narrow horizons" for local youngsters.