Keir Starmer is right to apply VAT to private school fees

So there we have it: VAT will be applied to private school fees.

Keir Starmer pledged to do it and, incredibly, then actually went ahead and did it.

I know, I was amazed as well.

All the available evidence suggested that the promise would be ditched once he had won an election but no – it survived the cull and then made it all the way to the big speech where the old guy in the silly gold hat reads out the plans for the year.

So what is changing?

Basically, up until now, people throwing around tens of thousands of pounds a year to keep their precious children from having to mix with the poor kids were also entitled to a nice wee tax break for doing so. As of the 2025/26 school year, that will no longer be the case.

The reaction from some quarters – whether to the initial announcement or the actual confirmation of the change – has been overheated. You could dedicate yourself to full-time attendance at comedy festivals and England football matches and not experience anything like a search of the words “Labour VAT school warning”.

Honestly, you’d think that Keir Starmer (a man I’m pretty sure would bleed beige if someone cut him) was about to hoist the red flag and start building siege barricades around Eton.

In reality, he’s doing something perfectly reasonable and sensible, because there is absolutely no good excuse for giving people paying for private schools a tax break, no matter how much they whine about the terrible unfairness of it all.

It’s also a good idea because it will generate cash that can be spent on actual problems. Labour reckon this could be around £1.5 billion, and Scotland will see some benefit as well – potentially to the tune of around £150 million.

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Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar – who has himself spent tens of thousands of pounds on school fees for his kids – wants to see that money spent on the public education system he refuses to use, which is an interesting position to adopt.

But Scottish education is, without doubt, desperately in need of more cash.

The college sector remains in crisis over the complete failure to agree a pay deal with lecturers. College bosses (who are paid very, very, very well, by the way) say they can’t afford it, and will be hoping that a fair chunk of that £150m is sent their way – although if recent history tells us anything, working class education will be last in line for funding.

Teacher numbers are another problem because, for all the Scottish Government’s big talk over increasing them, the opposite is likely to be true in many parts of the country. Indeed, Glasgow City Council – run by the SNP – is currently in the process of slashing around 8% of its teaching workforce, and the education convener there has said that they had no option because of the funding settlement they received from national government.

'If recent history tells us anything, working class education will be last in line for funding' (Image: Jamie Simpson)
ASN provision is under threat. Some councils are cutting school transport entitlements. Another has been looking at cutting the actual school week.

And these are just a few examples.

So yes, VAT on private school fees is obviously a good thing.

And yes, the extra money it generates should be spent on education, although anyone who thinks that £150m is going to magically solve our educational problems is in for an unpleasant surprise.

But this is, nonetheless, a good move by the Labour Party, and although the whole thing might cause a bit of consternation amongst some wealthy Scots (especially in Edinburgh) you have to ask: so what?

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We’re not even levelling the playing field here – we’re just taking a couple of degrees off the slope.

This is hardly a revolutionary bit of policymaking from Labour; if anything, it’s a relatively conservative move.

But maybe… just maybe… it could pave the way for some more radical conservations.

Should the rules around things like private school admissions or registration be reviewed?

Should private schools be able to continue to claim charitable status when their very existence is about maintaining inequality?

Or maybe we should just skip to the end and ask the really big question: would society just be better off getting rid of fee-paying schools altogether?