Notoriously strict and high-achieving headmistress Katharine Birbalsingh has finally got the job of a lifetime after being appointed the government’s new social mobility commissioner. Birbalsingh first rose to prominence speaking at the 2010 Tory conference, and has more recently attacked “woke culture”:

““It is always acceptable in our woke culture of 2021 to mercilessly attack black conservatives. They have ‘betrayed’ their leftist masters by daring to think for themselves, when they should be grateful. THAT is institutionalised/cultural racism. And it is everywhere.”

Today Birbalsingh spent the morning railing against the “bigotry of low expectations” with Julia Hartley-Brewer, arguing the “accident of your birth [shouldn’t be] something that determines the rest of your life”. The appointment was made by Liz Truss who has asked Birbalsingh to focus on “education, enterprise and employment”.

Birbalsingh’s appointment means the social mobility commission is the latest quango to be cleared out of left-wing leadership as part of the new anti-woke agenda of No. 10, with EHRC now led by Falkner, Goodhart and Butcher; the Office for Students let by Lord Wharton and the Children’s Commissioner led by Rachel De Souza. As much as Peter Riddell may despair at the clearing out of Blair era appointees with their Common Purpose groupthink, it is essential if the country is going to thrive in the future. The removal of the permanent left-wing nomenklatura from the agencies of the state is one of the most important missions the government is undertaking…