LABOUR MPs David Young and Terry Lewis and Bolton's education chairman Don Eastwood united today in demanding the resignation of Labour Health spokesman Harriet Harman from the Shadow Cabinet.

All three believe there is no way she can remain a party figurehead after her decision to send her son to a selective grammar school.

And, for good measure, Mr Young also bitterly criticised Labour leader Tony Blair for sending his son to a grant-maintained school. Mr Young, MP for Bolton South-east, said it was "very unfortunate for the party".

And Mr Lewis, MP for Worsley, said Tony Blair's inner circle were putting election victory at risk. He said Mrs Harman had "broken ranks" and should resign.

Mr Young, Mr Lewis and Cllr Eastwood joined the growing chorus for Mrs Harman to go today despite support from Shadow Cabinet colleagues.

Labour sources made clear she retained the confidence of Mr Blair whose son Euan attends the London Oratory Grant-Maintained School with Mrs Harman's other son, Harry.

But the decision of her and her husband, Jack Dromey, a senior Transport Union official, to send their son, Joe, out of the borough of Southwark where they live, to St Olav's Grammar school in Orpington, Kent, which is not merely grant-maintained but also selects pupils on ability, has caused uproar among back benchers.

On TV last night, Mrs Harman said she would not resign but she and her husband had to make "the right decision for our child" despite knowing that it was controversial and difficult.

But Mr Young said Mrs Harman should choose between her right to exercise parental choice and her position as a leading light in the Labour Party: "Parents have the right to choose.

"However, if you are a leader or a front bencher in the Labour Party, you have to make a choice.

"Mrs Harman can either exercise her choice as a parent to send her child to a selective school, or she can remain a Labour front bencher and not send her son there.

"If she wants to send her son to the school, I think it is right for her, at this stage, to go.

Cllr Eastwood said: "I am very disappointed. I don't really see how she can stay because opposition to selection is for me fundamental to Labour Party policy."

Cllr Eastwood was a member of Bolton's education committee which introduced comprehensive education in the early 1980s.

"I firmly believe in comprehensive education and we should be working to improve all schools.

"Harriet Harman can't have it both ways."

Mr Lewis said: "She is sending her son to a school 15 miles away that scours the south east of England for the top 10pct of pupils.

"It's not surprising that it gets such good results because it creams off the top ten per cent.

"It is that sort of thing that we in Labour are totally opposed to.

"I wrote to Tony Blair in the summer telling him it was not old Labour, or traditional Labour that was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, but some of his inner circle. Harriet Harman's decision shows that I was right."

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