That MP was Sarah Smith, Labour’s opportunity mission “champion”. The Labour government appointed five champions last year for its national “missions”: crime, energy, growth, health and opportunity. “I think it’s not necessarily just about intake, it’s also about geography,” Smith tells me from her wood-panelled office in Portcullis House. ‘Other schools pick up the pieces’Again, most schools in the area are ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’, and Smith says leaders co-operate well. Smith points to the “absolutely awful” murder of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who was withdrawn from school twice.