DISADVANTAGED school children who do not want to go to university should be able to access some form of student loan, a Conservative MP has said.

Philip Davies insisted pupils can benefit from loans that allow them to access work experience in big cities and other opportunities that may otherwise be outside their reach.

The Shipley MP said such a scheme could improve social mobility in areas of the country which may offer fewer opportunities than other regions.

Speaking in a backbench debate on educational attainment in Yorkshire, Mr Davies told the Commons: "We give student loans to people who want to go to university and progress their career through a university route.

"And I just wondered why other people who perhaps university wasn't for them shouldn't also be able to get some form of student loan to perhaps allow them to do things like coming down to London to access some work experience placements or something of that ilk.

"I don't really see why student loans should only be for the benefit of the most able and perhaps the wealthiest and most advantaged.

"How about actually giving some loans out to some of the most disadvantaged people in the country to allow them the access to pursue their particular career and give them the opportunities in Yorkshire that perhaps they do get in other parts of the country but we don't in Yorkshire at the moment.

"Social mobility is really what the Conservative Party should be all about, and I think we've got to look much more imaginatively (at that)."

Opening the debate, Labour's Jo Cox said improving education in Yorkshire and the Humber is essential if Chancellor George Osborne is to create a so-called "northern powerhouse".

The Batley and Spen MP described the £20 million earmarked in the Budget for education in the North is a "paltry gesture".

She called on the Government to extend lessons learnt from the successful London Challenge, such as the focus on leadership and collaboration with a positive ethos, and apply them to Yorkshire.

Ms Cox said the Teach First programme to train elite graduates must expand beyond London, where it sends more than 40% of its teachers.

And the National Teaching Service, which matches top teachers to schools where they are most needed, should be rolled out faster and with more focus on the North, she said.

"It's morally right that we act urgently to address this inequity but it is also an investment that will resonate far beyond individuals," Ms Cox said.

"Improving educational attainment in Yorkshire schools is central to the success of the so-called 'northern powerhouse'.

"Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools, says more attention must be focused on regions where too many schools are languishing in mediocrity and that the northern powerhouse will splutter and die unless under-performing schools improve."