NO one can deny that Oxford and Cambridge Universities discriminate against bright pupils from state schools.

They may deny charges of elitism, but statistics prove their guilt.

More than 70 per cent of the top A-level grades are obtained by state sector pupils. Yet only 52 per cent of Cambridge students and 47 per cent of Oxford students come from state schools.

We highlight on our front page today examples of brilliant young students, among the very best in the country, rejected by our nation's two most revered universities.

The only logical conclusion is that class is as important a factor as ability in the admissions policies of Oxbridge.

These universities should abandon forthwith further attempts to justify such an anachronistic system in an age when the principle of equal opportunity for all has been so widely embraced.

They would be better advised to turn their futile efforts to defend the indefensible to reform of admissions policies to reflect the modern egalitarian society they are supposed to serve.

No evidence has been presented from any quarter to question the legitimacy of Gordon Brown's attack on elitism in British education.

Yesterday's success of Laura Spence, the North-East schoolgirl he chose to highlight that inequality, vindicated his stance.

And the A-level results as a whole amply demonstrate the ever-improving performance of the state sector.

We do not deny parents the right to choose how and where their children are educated.

But we do reject a system which fails to reward on ability, and ability alone, and discriminates against those who attend a state school.

However, Mr Brown must not leave the burden of reform solely on the shoulders of Oxford and Cambridge.

His call for equal opportunity in education does not fit well with his own Government's policies.

It is one thing to improve school standards to arm youngsters from all backgrounds with the qualifications which ought to give them access to a university education.

But it is quite another to introduce tuition fees, effectively restricting access to university for so many, and thereby compounding the very notion of elitism Mr Brown and his colleagues seek to eradicate