Last week, Richard criticised the Secretary of State for Education, Bridget Phillipson, for her social media comments regarding private schools.
Speaking after the posts were made, Richard Fuller MP said:
There is already too much hate in our politics for a Secretary of State to use such divisive, spite fuelled language.
All parents pay taxes for their children to go to state schools (as indeed do taxpayers with no children). Those who choose to pay additionally to educate their children privately have already paid for those services and facilities in state schools: their children just don’t use them.
Bridget Phillipson knows the economic case for her education tax is bogus so she is ramping up the class rhetoric. Shameful.
The Labour Party’s planned imposition of VAT on private education is financially incompetent and is being promoted solely based on the politics of envy.
Disingenuously invoking images of Eton and Harrow as being representative of the independent schools sector is an insult to local parents in Bedfordshire who aren’t “toffs” or millionaires but working people who prioritise their savings to support their children. As with Labour’s callous and spiteful attack on pensioners, this is a policy that will end up losing money such is the financial incompetence of the new government.
This policy will most certainly result in bigger class sizes in our local state secondary schools which are already straining to deal with demand.
It will most certainly result in SEND pupils receiving less support and some special provision schools closing.
And it will place huge mental strain on the ordinary children who face moving away from long-established friendships and the familiarity of teachers and surrounding environment in the middle of a school year
Many will be working through GCSE or A-Levels and could see their futures impacted by an underperformance at this stage in their lives.
Sir Keir Starmer was sufficiently concerned about his own son’s GCSE performance that he ‘borrowed’ a friend’s £18 million apartment so his son could study in peace and quiet. If only he cared half as much about the children of those he promised to serve.
For more information on VAT on private school fees from January 2025, please visit https://richardfuller.co.uk/campaigns/vat-private-school-fees
