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I would have thought that the figures apply equally to any state school in any part of the country that has poor deprived areas as its catchment area and that is probably the real issue. The north probably having more of these areas. There will always be the odd one or two who went to a rough school and became 'high flyers', but for every 1 or 2 of them there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands who became high flyers because they went to the good state schools or were privately educated. This is not about individual cases, but the general trend that those from the working classes who did not go to right school have many more hurdles in their path than those who went to the right one. At my very first job interview for a training contract I was asked 1. Which school I went to and 2. what my parents did for a living. I went to a bog standard northern comp. My dad was an unemployed steel worker and my mother a dinner lady. I didn't get the job.
I really don't see what relevance it is what school Lucy Powell and Layla Moran went to. The point is where you were born and what financial circumstances you were born into have nothing to do with your abilities to do a job. Lucy Powell and Layla Moran clearly had privileged upbringings. So what? What they say is perfectly reasonable and in my view absolutely correct. Some of the comments on this page show just how much the profession needs a more diverse and relevant intake.