The Education Secretary branded comprehensive pupils poorly educated and Labour MPs as "in the main thick" in a letter to his student newspaper.
Newly appointed schools chief Kit Malthouse took aim at a fellow student's "ill-phrased, ponderous letter" - saying it was "obviously written by someone with a less than adequate education”, which “probably” meant they went to a “comprehensive" school.
In a letter to the Newcastle University newspaper in 1988, obtained by the Telegraph, 22-year-old Malthouse said that Labour MPs are "in the main thick, with a generally lower IQ than other MPs", whereas Tory MPs are “highly-educated, intelligent professionals, with experience in the real world”.
He was replying to a letter from another student, who claimed Margaret Thatcher’s days were “numbered” after “years of Conservative devastation of the North and the Midlands went unnoticed”.
Mr Malthouse, who was privately educated, retorted that the then Labour leader Neil Kinnock had taken “seven years to get a pass degree in psychology from Cardiff poly and has never had a real job in his entire life".
Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Parents of state school pupils will want reassurances that the new Secretary of State doesn’t still hold these views, and that he will be stretching every sinew so that every child can get a brilliant state education.”
A source close to Mr Malthouse told the Telegraph: “This is very obviously a satirical letter written to a student rag 34 years ago to pull the leg of the Uni Labour club.
"It’s clearly not an actual view he held then, or indeed holds now, not least because the huge advance in quality and standard of education across the board over the last decade has been wonderful to see."
Mr Malthouse is the fifth Education Secretary to be appointed in the last year after the political chaos of Boris Johnson's final months in No10.
A former chartered accountant, he served as deputy mayor for policing when Mr Johnson was London Mayor.
He became an MP in 2015 and was appointed as Policing Minister in 2019.
