I can't actually see why this is really any different from using the money to buy any other kind of advantage for her son, such as a more expensive house, which would typically be in an area where the state schools were a lot better provided for. (Which is what most of her cvritics in the media and politics have done.)

I agree that it is not fair that some children should have vastly less resources put into their education, or into their health care, or into their living conditions than others, that's true enough.

I wish there was an effective political movement which was determined to achieve a society where all children really did have an equal start in life.

But I can't see how that would have been brought any closer by Diane Abbott doing the politically convenient thing and "sticking to her principles" at the expense of what she judged were her son's best interests.