Mr McCartney Retweeted a statement that more Conservative MPs than Labour MPs are from working-class backgrounds, adding “You may well be correct…”
While quantifying the number of MPs from each party who hail from working-class backgrounds is an extremely difficult task, looking at their education is a good indicator of the socioeconomic environment they grew up in.
Data from the House of Commons Library shows that, at the 2019 General Election, 41% of Conservative MPs were educated in fee-paying schools – the largest number out of all the political parties.
In second place were Liberal Democrat MPs, with 30%. Only 14% of Labour MPs were educated in fee-paying schools.
While The Times declared this a victory for Conservatives, as a record-breaking 59% of Tory MPs were educated in state schools, and University College London found in 2018 that working-class Labour MPs are declining, the original claim being examined is still, with a good degree of certainty, false.
Fact Check: Karl McCartney 