Why is Labour axing the Tories’ most successful education policy?

By any measure, the free schools programme has been a resounding success. If you judge schools by how much progress their pupils make between the ages of 11 and 16, free schools occupy the top five positions in the most recent league table and eight of the top ten. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider free schools comprise less than 3 per cent of schools in England and Wales.

A free school – King’s maths school – was the top performing sixth form in the country for the ninth year in a row in 2024 and in 2022 was designated ‘best sixth form college of the decade’ by the Sunday Times.

Another one – Harris Westminster Academy – got 49 Oxbridge offers this year, one more than Eton.

The first free school I helped set up – the West London Free School – hasn’t fared quite as well, but it has done okay.