Sir Keir Starmer says there is ‘no evidence’ private schools will have to close due to Labour’s VAT plans

https://news.sky.com/story/sir-keir-starmer-says-there-is-no-evidence-private-schools-will-have-to-close-due-to-labours-plans-13160025

by topotaul

23 comments

  1. Oh the poor dears having to pay VAT on a transaction with a for-profit company – Said no one ever.

  2. I’m perfectly fine with this policy.

    But if prices go up 20% due to tax it’s inevitable that fewer will be paying for private education.

  3. If your school can’t survive paying tax like every other services business, maybe you weren’t very well run.

  5. There’s apparently huge waiting lists for private schools.

    One person leaves another enters, doubt there will be an overall change.

  6. Private schools should be abolished… We should do as Norway has done and put the rich kids in with the less fortunate.. Maybe with that, in future we won’t get so many out of touch arseholes, who think they are above the rest of us… True humility is humbling to most with a conscience.

  7. Does anyone know how this might affect school academies? Those are effectively businesses run like charities as well aren’t they?

  8. An interesting caller on lbc the other day, claimed to work in a private school. The point they made was that the wealthy are avoiding this tax by paying for their child’s entire education up front now, thus avoiding this increase, this tax will only affect those working class who are attempting to give their children a better future

  9. Plenty of evidence if you’re not going to the sorts of Private Schools MPs send their kids to.

  10. All it will do is make private schools more elitist, seperating the haves from the have nots even more, while putting more pressure on state schools. Not a fan of this policy unfortunately.

  11. I’ll give it about 18 months after implementing this, they will be adding VAT to university course fees.

  12. There’s really no evidence that VAT on private education will even help state schools too.

    Pupils going to private schools reduces the number of pupils going to state schools which ups the amount of funding per pupil.

    If every middle class and wealthy kid was going to a private school it would actually allow for underfunded schools to not be as underfunded. With these VAT increases those who were stretching to pay for private school for their kids won’t send them there. And there will be even more pupils filtering into state schools.

  13. So parents take the strain away from the state by paying for their children’s education privately and they deserve to be penalised for it?

    If rich people were to pay for their own healthcare and not use the NHS, taking the strain away from that…. Would you also want to penalise them for that also?

  14. If paying tax like every other operating business means you go into the red, it was never a good business in the first place.

  15. Of course they won’t, this is the kind of BS the poor lambs will bleat about until three years into the new Govt somebody on Channel 4 remembers this was a thing, and publishes the fact that not a single one closed – they will just keep putting up their fees.

  16. Maybe the parents could spend less on bingo and tattoos, bet they all have flat screen TVs as well

  17. Private schools claim they are charities. Well charities give out to the poor and needy, they don’t charge thousands for their services every year. In Scotland, many of them charge ridiculous fees to use their sports pitches, when if they are a “charity”, they should be giving everyone in the community a chance to use them free of charge.

  18. Maybe the school should absorb the costs instead of passing it on got the parents. Hope they don’t resort to year round fundraising, dress down days, summer fayres, bake sales, and raffles to try and make ends meet. Or requiring their teachers to pay out of pocket for petty expenses. Oh wait, like state schools

  19. I think he is wrong, Some of the small private schools will close down and this will have a negative impact on eduacation and the staff that work there. Not all children can survive in state education

  20. I just love the fact if we were still in the EU this wouldn’t be allowed.

    But cos we Brexitted it is.

    Lol.

  21. I didn’t go to private school but quite a few of my uni friends did. Their experience of life was ludicrously different to mine growing up.

    My partners dad is retired but as a favour has just been employed (in a private school) on a temporary contract for a year as an assistant rowing coach. That’s right. Not PE teacher. Not head coach. They actually have an assistant to an actual full time fucking rowing coach. So out of touch it’s unbelievable.

  22. I’m not for or against really. All I’d say is the local paid for school to me does not make any money. It’s not swimming in cash and laughing at the peasants.

    I don’t have much to base this on but I live in an affluent area and I’d assume that a decent percentage of them are the same. Some percentage of that will be passed on to parents.

    Let’s say that’s 40%. Let’s say 40% of children in paid for schools are forcibly moved to the state system, which we all say is broken and needs funding… who pays for that? The VAT? What improves?

    I know a lot of the above is guesswork but this is pure ideological nonsense. Doing this or not doing this will make 0 difference. It’ll all result in more tax, more borrowing, more spending.

    Now, I’ll still vote Labour. We need change. And I want change. But I hope this is better thought through. It won’t help anything.

  23. Many are charitable trusts so I wonder how that’s going to work ?

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