Nick Clegg accused of hypocrisy over son’s school

A LEADING headmaster has ­accused Nick Clegg of having “double standards” for considering independent schooling for his son at the same time as he tries to limit university places for pupils in private education.

Tim Hands, the incoming chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of leading public schools, criticised the Deputy Prime Minister for suggesting that the rift between top private schools and comprehensive schools that “ordinary families” send their children to was “corrosive”.

Mr Clegg has backed the idea of poorer pupils claiming university places even if their grades are lower, to heal the divide between the two school types – but he is considering sending his eldest son, 11, to a private school.

Mr Hands, the headmaster of Magdalen College School in ­Oxford, said Mr Clegg was guilty of “double standards”. He said: “On the one hand there’s ­personal support for the ­independent sector by sending one’s own child into it.

“On the other there is a political interference in higher education by trying to limit the number of independent-school pupils going to top universities.”

Mr Hands also suggested the Deputy Prime Minister’s arguments were based on flawed research about the number of children going to private schools.