Is Danny Dyer right about Boris Johnson?

The actor’s early morning rant about the prime minister’s privilege prompted a wave of support on social media – but is he right? Andrew Grice explains

Boris Johnson pictured during his time at Eton college (Rex)

Danny Dyer has claimed that the coronavirus pandemic has proved that “people who went to Eton” are unable to run the country. 

The EastEnders actor, who previously branded the Eton-educated David Cameron a “twat” for calling the EU referendum, told BBC Breakfast that a “little group” who attended the independent boarding school has shown it is time for “working-class people” who have “lived a real life” to run the UK. His comments were welcomed by the Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, and the Sutton Trust, a charity which campaigns for social mobility.

When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July last year, Downing Street vowed: “Boris will build a cabinet showcasing all the talents within the party that truly reflect modern Britain.” Yet his cabinet was the most privately educated for a generation. The proportion who went to a private school (64 per cent) was more than twice that of Theresa May’s 2016 cabinet (30 per cent) and higher than Mr Cameron’s 2015 cabinet (50 per cent) and the 2010 coalition cabinet (62 per cent).

Only two of the current cabinet went to Eton – Mr Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons. But about one in 10 of privately-educated MPs attended the school. Isabel Hardman, assistant editor of The Spectator, wrote in her book Why We Get the Wrong Politicians: “It is staggering that just one school has produced so many MPs when there are entire towns in this country that have never been represented by someone who was born and schooled locally.”

Some 41 per cent of Conservative MPs elected at last December’s election went to private schools, compared to 30 per cent of Liberal Democrats, 14 per cent of Labour MPs and 7 per cent of SNP MPs, according to the Sutton Trust. However, the proportion of MPs who were privately educated and the number who went to Oxford or Cambridge has fallen since 1979.

Many at Westminster share Mr Cameron’s view that “it is not about where you come from but where you are going, and want to take the country.” However, some Tories admit privately the government has looked out of touch with the real world during the fiasco over funding free school meals in school holidays.

There will be pressure on Mr Johnson to rebalance his top team when he reshuffles his cabinet, possibly in the new year, after criticism that his appointment of low-calibre Brexiteers and personal loyalists weakened the government’s response to coronavirus.

Tories representing the former red wall of Labour seats in the north and Midlands would like to see more MPs from their regions move up the government ladder. But the shake-up will be based on ability and improving the government's performance rather than where ministers went to school.