A former master of Eton College, Britain’s most famous private school, has admitted regret over “failing” to rein in ex-pupil Boris Johnson.
John Claughton, who was a master at Eton from 1984 to 2001, pointed to the former prime minister and other leading Conservatives – including Jacob Rees-Mogg and Kwasi Kwarteng – who have damaged the “very fabric” of the country.
Eton, which charges more than £46,000 per year for tuition, has produced 20 prime ministers – more than any other school in Britain.
In a brutally short letter in The Times on Tuesday, Claughton essayed the school’s role in educating the “global elite”.
He added: “Perhaps its most important mission will be to ensure that its pupils are saved from the sense of privilege, entitlement and omniscience that can produce alumni such as Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Kwasi Kwarteng and Ben Elliot and thereby damage a country’s very fabric.
“Sadly, I failed in that purpose.”
Johnson, ousted as prime minister last year after an avalanche of ministerial resignations following a series of controversies, has just dramatically quit parliament ahead of a damning report that is expected to find he deliberately misled MPs during the pandemic.
One of Johnson’s biggest cheerleaders, Rees-Mogg went from a backbencher with literally a laidback approach to the scourge of working-from-home culture as a cabinet minister – infamously leaving notes on the desks of civil servants who were not in the office.
As short-term prime minister Liz Truss’s chancellor, Kwarteng crashed the economy after announcing the biggest raft of tax cuts for half a century. He recently refused to apologise and suggested people were not angry with him, even though mortgage rates continue to soar.