Backbench revolts in Westminster can look like political game-playing. But current unrest among MPs about proposed changes to the funding of state schools is different. This pressure comes from the grass roots. Politicians have become aware that many schools in their constituency are likely to see their annual budgets cut, even though that was not the intention behind changes to the funding allocation formula that the Government announced last December. Combined with overall reductions and the effect of additional costs such as increases in the minimum wage, the new formula means nine out of 10 schools in England, in wealthier neighbourhoods as well as poorer ones, are expecting to cut back their activities – in many cases, severely.

The schools most affected are likely to be in poorer inner-city areas, including inner London, which have allegedly been unduly favoured under the existing funding formula. But forcing them to curtail what they do for children from often disadvantaged backgrounds hardly sounds like social justice, even when dressed up as being dictated, as in this case, by “fairness”.