An education chief has criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for a VAT raid on private schools.
The Labour leader has pledged a 20 per cent tax on fees, saying it would be rolled out “straight away.”
Chief executive of the Independent Schools Association (ISA) Rudolf Eliott Lockhart said many smaller institutions were already on a financial “knife edge.”
He added that many of these would be put out of business by the 20 per cent tax on fees.
Starmer has been criticised for the plans
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The party has claimed the policy, originally set under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, will raise £1.7bn, with £1.6bn coming from VAT and £100m from scrapping business rate relief.
Eliott Lockhart told The Telegraph: “In a sector our size there are always some schools, sadly, who close each year.
“This policy will inevitably increase the number of schools that are in that category. What’s not clear is how much it will increase by.
“Labour hasn’t fleshed out the policy, so we’re looking at tea leaves and trying to work out from different speeches that labour figures have made about what the policy is likely to be.”
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Sir Keir Starmer campaigning in Stafford earlier today
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It comes after a report warned Labour’s tax raid on private schools could end up costing the taxpayer £1.6 billion a year as a result of pupils being forced into the state sector.
Analysis from free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) has warned that the policy could cost more than it makes.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has predicted the policy will raise £1.3 billion each year.
However, the report says the IFS’s figure does not account for higher inflation, fiscal drag and rising mortgages.
The ASI report warned that independent schools spend more than 70 per cent of their fee income on staff costs.
It also warned that if just five per cent of children leave it would lead to 5,150 redundant teachers.
GB News has approached Labour for a comment.
Source Agencies
