Public school was the making of my son, says Diane Abbott

Hitting back: Diane Abbott MP fought off old criticism of her son's schooling
12 April 2012

Labour leadership contender Diane Abbott defied her critics today as she declared that sending her son to private school was "the making of him".

The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP said she had no regrets about her decision to pay the £10,000-a-year fees for son James to attend the prestigious City of London School.

Ms Abbott, who once attacked Tony Blair and Harriet Harman for sending their children to selective state schools, has repeatedly come under fire from Labour colleagues and activists over the issue.

The MP has in the past called her decision "indefensible" and "intellectually incoherent", but today she insisted that it was done for the good of her son.

"I was taught that you sacrifice everything for your child. I could have joined the church and all the stuff people do, but I wasn't prepared to. That school was the making of him," she told the Daily Telegraph.

Her son, now 18, was 12 when his mother opted to send him to the private school, whose alumni include former Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, author Kingsley Amis and Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe.

James ended up getting 11 A* GCSEs at the school and now attends an international school in his father's native Ghana. His mother now hopes that he may follow her example and get into Cambridge.

Ms Abbott has said recently that when she was choosing the secondary school nine years ago, the local comprehensive he was offered in Hackney was about to be closed. She claims that since that the impact of a Labour government has produced five new secondaries and she would have "no difficulties" sending a child there now.

Ms Abbott, who split from her husband after two years of marriage, also hit back at claims from fellow Labour MPs that she is "lazy". "They don't realise the demands of a busy constituency and bringing up a child alone," she said.

She also found it odd that both Miliband brothers, David and Ed, were in the Labour leader race.

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