Labour’s politics of envy
Labour is going to war on aspiration. Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to introduce VAT on private school fees was already a bad one, but his determination to do so “straight away” is particularly cruel. If Labour wins on July 4, parents with children at such schools would almost immediately have to decide whether they can afford to keep them there, since the start of the autumn term will be so close at hand.
Not that Sir Keir seems to care. His agenda is undiluted class envy, a sop to the hard-Left, who loathe ambition, excellence, and parental rights, and who want to impose on everyone an equality of misery.
There is no pragmatic case for this tax raid. It is highly unlikely to raise anything like the sums of money Labour claims, given that many children will simply move into the state sector. It could even end up being a net cost to the Treasury, depending on the numbers who are forced to leave private institutions.
It is also a Leftist myth that the independent sector is a bastion of unfair privilege: campaigners have warned that the VAT plan could prove particularly damaging to schools that cater for children with special educational needs. Will they be able to access anything like the support they currently receive if they are left reliant on the state sector?
It is a worrying sign that Labour evidently considers this to be a priority. There is no pressing need to reform the independent school sector, which educates hundreds of thousands of children at no cost to the taxpayer. It is needless destruction, motivated by bitterness and spite.
