THE government’s own Social Mobility Commission has attacked Tory MP Robert Halfon’s attempt to say the reason poor white kids do poorly at school is because teachers care too much about black and Asian kids.

Halfon’s education select committee issued a report this June about poor school performance of white pupils who get free school meals: this is a very real problem as poor kids, especially in small towns, have been neglected, and don’t do well at school. 

Thanks largely to previous Labour governments, some efforts to improve school performance of the poorest kids has paid off in London and other big cities. But less well-off kids in towns and smaller cities – often poor white kids – still do very badly. 

Robert Halfon made a big noise claiming “white working-class pupils have been let down” because liberal teachers talk too much about “white privilege.” 

Halfon says the “white privilege” idea “may have contributed towards a systemic neglect of white people facing hardship who also need specific support.” Halfon is suggesting poor white kids do badly because teachers favour black and Asian kids. 

Halfon’s report claimed there was an “industry” supporting non-white kids – implying liberals are making money out of helping black kids, at the cost of white kids. Halfon crow-barred all kinds of nonsense into his report, like the claim “some research from the United States also suggests that learning about white privilege may reduce sympathy for white people who are struggling with poverty.” 

His report was so tendentious that all the Labour members of the select committee disassociated themselves from it.  

Halfon’s insistence turned a cross-party report into a Tory report, but it got him all over the airwaves.

It seems to me that Halfon is shifting blame away from his own Tory government for poor schools’ performance and suggesting anti—racists and non-white kids are to blame. It looks like trying to set poor white people against black people to protect the government. It’s pretty dirty stuff. 

Halfon’s move was so bad that the government’s own Social Mobility Commission attacked it – meaning the government’s own website contains a detailed criticism of this Tory MP’s well-publicised report.  

Cameron’s Conservative government set up the Social Mobility Commission to try to show it did care about the plight of less well-off kids. It’s not a radical body, but Halfon’s manoeuvre was so bad that the Commission was prodded into action. 

Sammy Wright, the government‘s Social Mobility Commissioner for Schools , and vice-principal of Southmoor Academy in Sunderland, wrote the detailed, measured critique.

Wright says that “there is a vital issue here – there is significant underachievement amongst the long-term disadvantaged in many areas of the country.”

But he attacks Halfon’s attempt to make this into a racial issue.

Wright says: “To focus on the fact that it is the white pupils identified here that are underachieving is to put the cart before the horse. 

“The significance is in place and context – ex-industrial marginalised communities that have experienced decades of underinvestment. Most of these communities are predominantly white, and one of the reasons they have remained white is precisely because there has been so little investment or opportunity.”

Wright shows that there is a sleight-of-hand where Halfon says “white working class” because “many people reading this will identify as white working class and think this is about them – but it’s not. 

“The underachievement is by white pupils on free school meals. Working class is not the same as poor – and poverty takes many different forms. A smaller proportion of white children live in poverty than any other group.”

Most of all Wright says that Halfon’s attempt to blame poor performance on the white liberals or black activists using the term “white privilege” is just wrong.

He says: “To say that use of the term ‘white privilege’ (which has really only become part of the discourse in the last few years) has a role to play is to ignore how long-term and systemic these issues are, and risks minimising the challenges of poverty for all ethnicities.”

Wright has a positive plan as well. He says: “The answer to these issues is about thinking about investment in jobs, transport, housing, welfare and wider opportunities as well as in schools.”

But I don’t think Halfon wants to think about that kind of investment, he wants to shift the blame for poor schools’ performance by trying to say anti-racists favouring black kids are at fault.

The government being forced to carry a detailed critique of a Tory MP’s nasty report on the government’s own website should be serious news. But the Social Media Commission critique of Halfon’s report was barely mentioned in the national press – I saw one reference in passing on the Guardian, and that was that.

In theory, all the press are super-keen on “social mobility.” But they are much keener on pretending “white working class“ problems are the fault of people being too worried about black kids.

Follow Solomon Hughes on Twitter @Sol_Hughes.