Shami Chakrabarti defends son's private education after criticising selective education

Labour's Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti has spoken out in defence of her decision to send her son to a private school, after she openly criticised Prime Minister Theresa May's grammar schools proposal for being "scarring".

The former head of civil rights organisation Liberty, and recently appointed shadow cabinet member said she knew too many people who "carry that scar of failing the 11-plus".

However, the Labour peer has been criticised after it emerged she sends her own son to Dulwich College, an £18,000 a year independent school.

"I have real concerns about grammar schools. In my lifetime, I have met too many people, including incredibly bright, successful people, who carry that scar of failing the 11-plus, and that segregation in schooling," she told ITV's Peston on Sunday on 9 October.

However, when questioned about her decision to send her son to a fee-paying school, she replied: "I live a charmed and privileged life, much more now than I ever did when I was a child, but people on the left have often had charmed and privileged lives.

"I live in a nice big house, and eat nice food, and my neighbours are homeless, and go to food banks.

"Does that make me a hypocrite, or does it make me someone who is trying to do best, not just for my own family, but for other people's families too?

"And this thing about selection – if you've got money you will always be all right. If you don't have money in this country you are increasingly not all right, and that is why I have joined the Labour Party."

However, many viewers took to Twitter to criticise Chakrabarti's stance.