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Friday, 26 May, 2000, 13:10 GMT 14:10 UK
Oxbridge blues, and reds
![]() Tony Blair did, and William Hague. So did John Prescott, Geoff Hoon, Ann Widdecombe and Michael Portillo.
But Jack Straw, Robin Cook and Margaret Beckett didn't. Nor did Mo Mowlam or David Blunkett. Incidentally, the question under consideration is which of today's top politicians went to Oxbridge?
The comments of Chancellor Gordon Brown over Laura Spence, the Tyneside teenager turned down by Oxford University, have blown open the age-old argument over Oxbridge.
For centuries the "dreaming spires" of Oxford and the "backs" of Cambridge have been proving grounds for some of Britain's most ambitious citizens. Nowhere has this been more true than in politics. Former prime minister John Major is one of only a handful of leaders of the country not to have attended Oxford or Cambridge. But glance at the educational background of the current cabinet and shadow cabinet, and Mr Major's vision of a classless society begins to cloud. A third of Tony Blair's 22-member cabinet (36%) have been educated at Oxford or Cambridge. Significantly though, many of those who occupy the top jobs, including Robin Cook, Gordon Brown and Jack Straw, received their education elsewhere. (John Prescott attended Ruskin College, an independent college based in Oxford for mature students.) William Hague's shadow cabinet is dominated by graduates of these two distinguished seats of learning. Sixty-four percent of the 22-member team are Oxbridge alumni, including all those in the leading posts. Oxbridge cabinet ministers:
Oxbridge shadow cabinet ministers:
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