Alliance slams Tories on hypocrisy over Grammar Schools

12.27.39pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 21st May 2007

Alliance Belfast Councillior Mervyn Jones

Alliance Spokesperson Cllr Mervyn Jones has hit out at the Conservative Party over their policy flop-flop on grammar schools. He stated that local Tories are now anti-grammar school, even though they made protecting grammar schools their main priority during the recent election campaign.

The Belfast City Councillor said: "Local Tories are now anti-grammar school.

"They cannot deviate from Conservative Central Office's stated line on this because make great play out of being a UK party.

"Do local Tories agree with their UK counterparts on this matter. We would like clarification on this because it would be interesting to see whether they wish to cause a party rift on this issue

"This policy flip-flop is extremely strange given the fact that they made their anti-selection stance their main issue during the last election campaign.

"They were extremely critical of local parties over the abolition of selection, now they find themselves in the bizarre position that they like selection but don't like the grammar schools needed to sustain that system.

"Can we trust them with any policy statements in future?"

ENDS