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Is Burnham’s Oxbridge-heavy cabinet a sign of social mobility or lack of progress on class?

World

PM’s team can be seen as backward step even though in some ways it is more diverse. Yet its makeup points to wider access to power

Like 20 British prime ministers before him, Andy Burnham’s new cabinet minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan, went to Eton. After graduating from the country’s most elite private school, Narayan attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied – what else? – PPE (politics, philosophy and economics), like David Cameron, Rishi Sunak, Ed Miliband and a host of other senior politicians. An MBA at Stanford and a career in the City followed.

But Narayan’s background is hardly typical of the British ruling class. Born in Behar in eastern India, he moved with his family to Cardiff when he was 12. He and his younger brother were sleeping on the floor of their one-bedroom home when a teacher at his local high school suggested the bright young boy apply for some private schools. His parents, who had joined the Labour party almost as soon as they arrived in Wales, ran a petrol station. Eton was possible only thanks to a full scholarship.

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Source: The Guardian World — This article was automatically imported from the source. Read full article at original source →

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Originally published by The Guardian World theguardian.com
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Gram Slattery

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