RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has condemned the Government over the elite universities scandal, which he believes has uncovered "problems that exist in the education system."

The storm began when Tyneside comprehensive student Laura Spence was rejected by Oxford -- only to be offered a place at Harvard.

Oxbridge colleges have now been offered Government cash as an incentive to seek out talented state school pupils.

But Mr Evans stressed that problems in his constituency run deeper, because each year Ribble Valley children scramble to get in to local secondary schools.

He said: "In my postbag, in the eight years that I have been an MP, I have received one letter from a parent saying that their youngster could not get in to Oxford. But I have had many letters, almost every year, from parents who are very concerned that their children will not get in to a Ribble Valley school and will be sent to Accrington or other schools outside the area. "Instead of the Government banging to the old Labour drum of envy and class divides, they should be addressing the real issues of the Ribble Valley, which would mean that all children are given the chance at a decent education in local state schools.

"One of the first things the Government did was introduce tuition fees and scrap grants, which makes it far more difficult for youngsters to go to any university, not just Oxford or Cambridge.

"And one of the next things was assisted places so youngsters from poorer backgrounds were able to go to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, in Blackburn, or Stonyhurst College, in the Ribble Valley and the Government paid their fees.

"Those youngsters from poorer and deprived backgrounds are not able to go to those schools any more. And those schools are more likely to send their pupils to Oxbridge colleges."

Mr Evans is supporting a group of Ribble Valley parents who set up the And Counting... campaign to fight for a new secondary school to ease the annual schools' place crisis.