The real losers from Labour’s VAT raid on private schools? The children
Won’t somebody please think of the children?!”
I never expected to use this line – uttered hysterically by the judgemental vicar’s wife character on The Simpsons – in earnest. But the Labour Party’s latest proposal to add VAT onto private school fees might just force my hand.
Admittedly, like many of the biggest issues in the so-called culture wars, private schools get a disproportionate amount of attention in relation to the number of people actually affected by anything to do with them. Only 5.9 per cent of children in the UK are privately educated, with estimates putting the number at around 540,000 of the 14 million-strong population of under-18s. Some think the latest brouhaha could reduce this even further.
The addition of VAT – 20 per cent of the current fees – would be passed directly along to the parents of children in private schools, some of whom argue that they will feel unable to afford the price hike and end up moving their kids into the state system as a result. Labour said it would also end business rates relief for private schools in England. It’s been one of the most contentious and talked-about policy announcements of
