Gateshead Labour MP Ian Mearns has condemned Conservative MPs who claimed white pupils are neglected because teachers believe they have "white privilege".
The finding featured in a report by the House of Commons Education Committee, which includes Mr Mearns, following an inquiry into whether why some white working-class pupils perform badly at school.
Labour MPs on the Committee rejected the conclusion - and were voted down by Tory colleagues, so that the report was published with the controversial comments included.
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While it's not unheard of for Commons committees to be split, the convention is for MPs from different parties to attempt to reach a consensus so that their findings are accepted by everyone.
Mr Mearns told ChronicleLive: "The addition of the chapter on 'white privilege', we thought was a complete and utter distraction.
"It's an argument that isn't going on anywhere except for in the minds of people in the Conservative Party. It's all about culture wars, and a hard-right reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement.
"With that chapter included, the Labour MPs couldn't vote for the report. But much of the rest of the content of the report, we absolutely agree with."
Mr Mearns said the report said white working class communities had been left behind following decades of neglect, and he was "absolutely on board" with those findings.
The report that was published, against the wishes of Labour committee members, said schools should consider whether the promotion of such “politically controversial” terminology as white privilege is consistent with their duties under the Equality Act 2010.
Disadvantaged white pupils have been badly let down by “muddled” policy thinking and the Department for Education (DfE) has failed to acknowledge the extent of the problem, the report said.
The MPs made a series of recommendations to improve white working-class pupils’ outcomes, including finding “a better way to talk about racial disparities” to avoid pitting different groups against each other.
The committee agreed with the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that discourse around the term “white privilege” can be “divisive”.
A strong network of family hubs should be introduced across the country to boost parental engagement and mitigate the effects of multi-generational disadvantage, the report said.
It said funding needs to be tailor-made at a local level, initiatives should focus on attracting good teachers to challenging areas, and vocational and apprenticeship opportunities should be promoted.
The report highlights that 47% of free school meal-eligible (FSM) white British pupils did not meet the expected standard of development at the end of the early years foundation stage in 2018/19 – around 28,000 children.
In 2019, just 17.7% of FSM-eligible white British pupils achieved at least a strong pass (grade 5 or above) in English and maths at GCSE, compared with 22.5% of all FSM-eligible pupils. This equates to nearly 39,000 pupils.
The committee found these disparities particularly striking because white people are the ethnic majority in the country – and yet FSM-eligible white British pupils are the largest disadvantaged group.
During the inquiry, the Committee heard evidence from Nick Hurn, Chief Executive of Gateshead-based Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust, which runs schools across the North East.
He said pupils suffered from a lack of aspiration, which was partly because the North East did not have the same role models and offer the same opportunities as the south of England.
He said: "Why do white disadvantaged children not achieve as much as other ethnic groups? In my particular area, and I have worked in this area for 20 years, it is predominantly white disadvantaged children. The difference I think from other areas is it is an engrained attitude by many of the families over generations. They have a disregard for education in many respects.
"There is also a large proportion of the families who struggle to help their children, certainly in preschool education areas in particular. That is the real main challenge.
"A lot of our children do not come to school with developed language skills, so before they even start they are behind other children. That does not get any better and we struggle along and struggle along. They get through primary school, then they get to secondary school and by the time they are at secondary school it is far too late.
"There is a poverty of aspiration in the area. There are very few good role models and few opportunities for development in industry and commerce. You look at London and big cities, I think children down there can look around and see many excellent examples of what to aspire to. In our particular area, there are far fewer opportunities to develop those sorts of ideas of what they might want to do."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This Government is focused on levelling up opportunity so that no young person is left behind.
“That’s why we are providing the biggest uplift to school funding in a decade – £14 billion over three years – investing in early years education and targeting our ambitious recovery funding, worth £3 billion to date, to support disadvantaged pupils aged two to 19 with their attainment.”
