Mr Redwood described her remarks as “obtuse”, adding: “I don’t think we are going to get a better team by training them less, and no longer giving them any kind of elite education."

Earlier in the debate, Mr Redwood said many opposed selective grammar schools because they did not like the advantage it gave to those selected.

He added: "When I asked the shadow secretary of state whether she was upset by the fact that our elite sports people have usually been selected at quite a young age for special training, special education, and that they are expected to achieve to a much higher level than the average and they are given training and made to do extra work in order to do so, and she didn't seem at all upset by that in any way."

Former shadow home secretary Andy Burnham called this "a particularly useless analogy", adding: "Education is about life, the skills that people need to get through life, the basic literacy, the numeracy.