Why are Labour taxing education?

Let me be blunt, the VAT raid on private schools is a vindictive and short sighted disaster, It’s not about fairness, or about funding education, it’s a policy of pure envy, cooked up to punish families who dared to put their children’s education first and aspired to be better.

I’ve just pulled my three kids out of private school, not because I wanted to, but because I simply can’t afford the fees anymore and I’m definitely not alone. Most parents I know are in the same boat, they’re scrambling, panicking, wondering how on earth they’re going to manage another year of skyrocketing costs, some are taking out loans, or borrowing from relatives to cover the final years of schooling and others are making heartbreaking decisions, moving kids away from their friends, their teachers and their support networks, all because Labour thinks that education is a luxury that should be taxed.

This is not targeting the super rich, the rich can absorb the school fee rises, but most families who send their children to private school aren’t popping champagne and driving Bentleys, many are normal, hard working mums and dads who’ve made massive sacrifices, downsized homes, worked second jobs, and given up holidays just to give their children the best start in life. These are the people being kicked in the teeth by this government…so so wrong.

And what’s the result? schools are going bust. I’ve already heard of several shutting their doors, unable to cope with the financial hit, bursaries, which helped kids from disadvantaged backgrounds access top tier education, are disappearing overnight, this was one of the few areas where working class kids could genuinely access opportunity. That’s gone now, thanks to Labour’s war on aspiration.

Parents feel like they’ve failed their kids, I certainly did at the start of this process. Children are being uprooted and dumped into a state sector that’s already bursting at the seams, and guess what? I said this would happen. I said from the start, on X and on the GB News sofa, that Labour’s sums didn’t add up. They thought they’d squeeze the private sector for £1.5 billion, well, now they’re going to have to spend billions more accommodating tens of thousands of displaced pupils in state schools, building new classrooms, hiring new teachers, managing overcrowding, you now pay for my kids schooling, when before, I’d pay the fees and also help contribute to the state sector via taxes. It’s a financial and logistical catastrophe, it is madness.

Let’s be crystal clear, Labour are taxing education, read that again, they’re taxing education, not yachts, luxury handbags or second homes in the Algarve…education. The very thing that we’re meant to value, nurture and prioritise.

And here’s the cherry on top, Keir Starmer promised that the money raised would go straight into hiring more state school teachers and improving state education, but just yesterday, he tweeted that the same money will now be used for housebuilding !! So which is it, Keir? education or housing? You can’t spend the same pound twice. Either he doesn’t understand basic maths, or he’s lying… again, and I think we all know which it is.

How is that progressive?

How is that fair?

This isn’t clever policy, it’s class war dressed up as reform, It’s the politics of resentment and envy and the people who suffer aren’t all hedge fund managers and high flyers, it’s the children. Kids caught in the crossfire of a government more interested in headlines than outcomes.

Labour can spin it how they like, “closing loopholes,” “levelling the playing field,” but the reality is this, families are hurting, schools are collapsing and the state sector is about to buckle under the weight of thousands of new pupils that it never planned for.

This wasn’t thought through, it wasn’t costed properly and now we’re all paying the price.

Adam Brooks