PM Backs Kelly Over School Shoice

Under-fire cabinet minister Ruth Kelly will get a public show of support from the Prime Minister when they join forces for a social housing summit. Tony Blair will appear side-by-side at Downing Street with the Communities Secretary a day after she came under fire from some Labour MPs for sending her son to a private school.

The ex-Education Secretary insisted on Monday that she had done the “right thing” in following professional advice over the needs of the child who has “substantial” learning difficulties.

Colleagues – and even Tory leader David Cameron – rejected claims she had acted hypocritically but the decision sparked a major debate over the success of Labour’s education policy.

Mr Blair did not comment personally on the issue on Monday, leaving his spokesman to say that he backed the right of parents, whoever they might be, to make such choices for their children.

But Tuesday’s event – at which they are to unveil new powers for tenants to help “put the responsible majority back in charge of communities” – will be seen as a strong personal backing.

Ms Kelly was forced to speak out on Monday after being named as the minister involved in the story – first reported without names in the Mail on Sunday the previous day.

In an emotional plea for understanding, she insisted she had to do the “right thing” for her child, who is believed to have dyslexia.

That meant taking him out of the state system for a “couple of years”, she said, stressing that she would not be seeking to take advantage of any taxpayer-funded help available. Her other children would remain in the state sector.

“I appreciate that some will disagree with my decision,” she said in a statement. “I understand why, but we all face difficult choices as parents and I, like any mother, want to do the right thing for my son – that has been my sole motivation.”