The Teach First charity are circulating a letter aimed at lobbying Tory MPs to vote against grammar schools – and the man behind it is an Oxbridge-educated former private schoolboy. Teach First ambassador Louka Travlos is seeking to drum up enough covert support that he can get an anti-grammars letter published by a newspaper, telling colleagues:

“We need signatures from at least 3000 members of our community if the newspaper is going to be able to make the letter into a story. Crucially we need to do it without social media. If the letter is tweeted and shared publicly no paper will be interested in making it into a story.”

On his personal Facebook page however, black-tie wearing Travlos discusses how he himself enjoyed the merits of a selective education:

“My parents were wealthy. They sent me to an expensive private primary, Orme House, where they drilled me on exam practice… I remember the visceral fear of failure and having to go to…(shudder) State school…. But my parents could afford specialist private tuition, so I passed.”

His selective education allowed him to go on to study PPE at Oxford. Talk about pulling up the drawbridge…