Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust, said the results show the pandemic “has reversed a decade of progress” and paints a “worrying picture.”
He added that ''There has to be a step change in what is done to enable young people to recover from the pandemic”, and “The government needs to step up to the challenge immediately. There is no time to lose.”
The Department for Education say the widening “may reflect the difficult circumstances that many pupils will have experienced over the last few academic years.”
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said there is a “huge education challenge” facing the country.