GRAMMAR schools are a form of “state sponsored segregation”, the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon MP has claimed.

Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for education, told the party's conference that grammar schools did ‘’nothing to drive social mobility’’ and are a ‘’waste of money’’.

In a blistering attack on the Government’s education policy, the MP also called for the abolition of Ofsted, an overhaul of league tables and primary school exams and a pay rise for teachers.

She said: “It says everything that only three per cent of children on free school meals go to grammars.

“How, when we know they do nothing to drive social mobility, does the Government push them to expand? What a waste of money.

“How, when we know families spend thousands of pounds on private tutoring to pass the 11+, can the Government claim that they are accessible to all?”

She added: “So what I would like to see us do as a party, hand in hand with the communities that this affects - is take on the harmful, antiquated tradition of the 11+ exams and indeed all barriers to entry in the state system.

“I’m especially talking about those areas where families have no choice whatsoever about taking the exams. Where creaming off the middle classes is demonstrably stifling social mobility for those worse off.

“In those areas, grammar schools are in effect state sponsored segregation. It is wrong and it needs to stop.”