Greening takes dovish tone on government’s schools plan

Is Theresa May planning an epic battle with some of her own MPs to introduce new grammar schools in England? When Justine Greening gave her statement in the Commons this afternoon, she repeated many of the Prime Minister’s own lines about selection already existing through house prices and so on. But her language was much more conciliatory, with the Education Secretary telling MPs that ‘this is the beginning of a consultation that sets out a debate that we need to have’.

Greening and her colleagues will be responsible for trying to persuade reluctant MPs of the merits of the changes, and she clearly doesn’t want to start a stand-off just yet, even if May does see the policy as a way of defining herself against her predecessor, who will soon be absent from the Commons anyway.

The question is whether the definition of ‘I’m not Cameron’ is more important than the policy itself.