Labour ramps up calls for private schools tax by making bid to force a Commons ... trends now
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Labour will today try to force a Commons vote on its plans to hit private schools with a tax double whammy.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to charge independent schools VAT and scrap the 80 per cent relief they receive on business rates.
His party will argue today that ending the ‘tax breaks’ could raise enough money to recruit 6,500 more teachers to drive up standards.
But Labour was warned last night that attempts to ‘pit’ private schools against state schools would not achieve that goal.
Sir Keir Starmer wants to charge independent schools VAT and scrap the 80 per cent relief they receive on business rates. Pictured: Sir Keir Starmer in the House of Commons, December 14, 2022
Around 15 per cent of the country’s mainstream private schools could be forced to close as a result of the plan. Others, meanwhile, would pass on the VAT to parents, pricing out many middle-class families.
Julie Robinson, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, which represents 1,300 schools, said: ‘We all want the best possible education for every child.
‘But taxing parents and attempting to pit different parts of the education sector against each other is simply not the way
