A Manchester school has been dubbed the new Eton as two of its former students are appointed to senior roles in the new Labour government. Parrs Wood High School in Didsbury has produced more members of the new cabinet than the prestigious Eton College.

Manchester Central MP Lucy Powell and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy both attended the state school in East Didsbury during the eighties and nineties. They have now been appointed as the House of Commons Leader and Culture, Media and Sport Secretary respectively.

Almost every member of Keir Starmer's first cabinet went to a comprehensive school, according to the Sutton Trust, with none of its members having attended Eton College which has produced 20 British Prime Ministers including David Cameron and Boris Johnson. By contrast, nearly two-thirds of Rishi Sunak's Conservative cabinet went to fee-paying schools with a similar proportion in Mr Johnson's.

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Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner, who is now the deputy Prime Minister, is one of the only cabinet members who did not go to university. Of the 25 ministers in Labour's first cabinet, 10 of them went to Oxford or Cambridge university, including Ms Powell.

Commenting on X, formerly Twitter, about the presence of Parrs Wood High School alumni in the cabinet, Ms Powell said: "Yes two of us in the Cabinet went to the same comprehensive school in Manchester - pretty amazing really. I’m currently a parent there too!"

Parrs Wood High School was established in 1967. The original building was demolished in 2000 and rebuilt next to the former site.

In 2007, the school was placed in special measures but three years later it was found to have improved sufficiently. In 2016, the school was converted into an academy and it now belongs to the Greater Manchester Education Trust which runs four schools in the city.

The mixed-gender school of around 2,000 pupils was rated 'Good' at its last inspection by Ofsted in 2019. Headteacher Mark McElwee told The Times that the school is 'incredibly proud' that two of its former students have now been named in Labour's new cabinet.

He said: "Parrs Wood High School is incredibly proud of both Lucy Powell and Lisa Nandy. Being named in the new cabinet is a fantastic achievement and a testament to their hard work, which they always demonstrated during their time as pupils at our school.

"They are real role models and an inspiration for our students demonstrating that you can absolutely reach the top of your profession from a state school background. Parrs Wood has a core value of ‘community’ which is clearly aligned to both Lucy and Lisa’s important positions and we wish them the best as they take their roles forward in these challenging times.

"I know that the qualities they have always demonstrated will make them just as successful as they were during their time at Parrs Wood."