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MOST Tory ministers appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday are either millionaires or went to posh private schools.
Mr Cameron promised a “ministry of all the talents” as he revealed who would be part of Britain’s first all-Tory Cabinet for 18 years.
But a Star analysis shows the parade of Tory MPs being given top government jobs includes at least 14 millionaires, alongside a bevy of silver-spoon scions of wealthy houses waiting to inherit family empires. They include Chancellor George Osborne and Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who are expected to cut child benefit in a bid to slash welfare spending by £12 billion.
Nick Boles, installed to the Department of Education with extra responsibility for trade union and employment law, is also a millionaire. And there will be not one but two Etonian Johnsons at the table, with Boris joined by his brother Jo, who takes a universities brief.
People’s Assembly national secretary Sam Fairbain said the vast personal wealth of the Cabinet would will effect the decisions they take. He told the Star: “I think we know what to expect from this cabinet — a government that’s only interested in the richest of society. “Under the last government, we saw the longest fall in living standards for working people, while the thousands richest people in Britain doubled their wealth.
“How much more wealth do they need? That’s why we’ll be demonstration against austerity on June 20.”
Members of Mr Cameron’s Cabinet are also seven times more likely to have attended private school than the general population, according to figures published by the Sutton Trust.
Education Secretary Nick Morgan is among the many cabinet ministers who attended fee-paying schools — 50 per cent of the Cabinet. Ms Morgan went to posh Surbiton High School in Surrey, which now charges up to £4,994-a-year in fees.
Mr Cameron, who himself went to Eton, had little choice but to pick posh ministers as almost half of all Tory MPs attended independent schools. That compares to 7 per cent of the population who went to private school and 32 per cent of MPs across all parties. Half of the Cabinet also attended either Oxford or Cambridge universities, with a further one-third coming from elite red brick universities.
Sutton Trust chief executive Dr Lee Elliot Major said: ”Parliament and government should represent the society they represent. “The best people should be able to become ministers, regardless of social background.”