First choice for Brown and Cameron

Despite all that has been in the news recently about primary school places, it would appear that Gordon Brown and David Cameron have had no trouble in having their first choice primaries allocated to their children.

Yesterday Gordon Brown and David Cameron revealed that they had secured their first-choice schools for their respective four-year-olds, John Brown and Nancy Cameron. One is an inner-city community school where half the children are entitled to free meals and most speak English as a second language. The other is a Church of England school in Kensington, West London, with a largely white, middle-class catchment area.

The Prime Minister’s choice for his elder son, Millbank Primary, is the nearest-but-one primary school to Downing Street. There are at least a dozen state primaries closer to the Conservative leader’s home in North Kensington than the school he has chosen.

The Tory leader and his wife, Samantha, have secured a place for their daughter Nancy at the heavily oversubscribed St Mary Abbots Church of England school. A Conservative source said that the family were delighted, adding: “This is the school they wanted for their daughter. They have gone through the same process as everyone else. They attend the church, and there was no favouritism.” The Camerons’ nearest school is thought to be Oxford Gardens.