Most of the extra places created at 13 leading universities since Labour came to power in 1997 have gone to state school pupils.

A report published yesterday by the Sutton Trust showed that the 13, which include Oxford and Cambridge, now admit 33,575 students a year, 5,975 more than they did in 1997.

Over the same period, the number of state school pupils they admitted increased by 5,888, so only 87 of the extra places went to independent school pupils.