Schools in better-off areas lose cash to aid poor

Just four months after David Cameron promised that no families would suffer to meet the cost of the £2.5 billion "pupil premium", Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, conceded that the plan meant some schools "will have less".

Ministers struggled for months to come up with funding for the pupil premium, a key plank of the Lib Dem election manifesto. Other parties warned it would be impossible to pay for when cuts were being imposed across the public sector.

Earlier this month, Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Deputy Prime Minister, announced that he had secured the necessary funding for the scheme, which is intended to give the poorest children access to the best schools and universities.