Katharine Birbalsingh, dubbed Britain’s strictest headteacher, has quit as the Government’s social mobility tsar after claiming she was doing “more harm than good”.
Announcing her surprise departure on Friday, Ms Birbalsingh said that the “simple answer” for her decision to quit was that “I come with too much baggage”.
“I have become increasingly aware that my propensity to voice opinions that are considered controversial puts the commission in jeopardy,” she wrote in a column in Schools Week.
“On balance then, I am doing the social mobility commission more harm than good… Today, I am stepping down from [my] role.”
The headmistress of Michaela Community School in Wembley, which is known for its “tough-love” approach to teaching, said she felt repeatedly “attacked for my apparently abhorrent views on social mobility”.
