A Bradford MP has vowed to keep up pressure to help students from low- income families stay at school after being the only MP from the Coalition to call for a re-think on grants.

Bradford East Liberal Democrat MP David Ward voted with Labour MPs calling for Education Secretary Michael Gove to rethink his controversial decision to scrap grants of up to £30 a week for students from low- income families – the only MP not to follow rank.

Education Maintenance Allowance is currently paid to more than 9,000 students across Bradford but will stop from September.

Mr Ward said: “There are people on low incomes who want their children to stay on at school. They will have to make sacrifices, but at what cost to their family budget?

“I think although families will make the sacrifices it will have an unfair impact on those households that people living in higher-income households will not see.

“It will inevitably have an unfair and unequal impact on lower-income families. The decision at 16 should be what is the best thing for my child, but money will come into it now.

“I will keep pushing as hard as I can on Government to find out what they are going to do for the lower-income families. I will be speaking with ministers about this.”