Full disclosure: I went to private school, my parents paid the fees, the education was good and I’m sure it improved my chances and opportunities. As to whether it damaged my personality and gave me an arrogant sense of entitlement, you’d have to ask the people who know me although does anybody care about their opinions I don’t think so.

My point is I have a bit of history here, so bear that in mind as we discuss the issue at hand: whether VAT should be levied on school fees. Labour was threatening the policy for some time and finally went through with it in the Budget which can’t have been easy: one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country is irritated middle-class parents so it wouldn’t have been surprising if the government had dropped the idea.

But no, they didn’t, they’ve gone ahead, meaning 20% VAT will be added to school fees from January. It’s not an insignificant sum and will mean thousands extra for most pupils even if schools absorb some of the tax in other ways. The government’s justification is that the money will be used for extra teachers in state schools and because education is devolved, this will trigger extra cash for Scotland too.

The response of the independent schools has been robust. Imposing VAT, they say, will lead to some pupils being taken out of school because their parents can no longer afford the fees. They also say some schools will be forced to close and The Independent Schools Council plans to take the government to court, claiming the policy breaches the European Convention on Human Rights.

But here’s a bit of legal advice for them: you haven’t a hope in hell. Education is a human right certainly, and The Human Rights Act 1998 says no person can be denied the right to an education. But private school kids aren’t being denied their right because no matter what happens they would be entitled to a place in the state sector, and I’d have thought the law on that was clear (FYI, I’m an LLB Hons First Class, private education really does pay off you know).

The idea of an exodus from the private sector doesn’t stack up either. Fees have always gone up: the IFS says on average they've risen by 55% since 2003. The average private school parent is also likely to have capacity to adjust their finances: asked in one survey how they would deal with a rise in fees, parents said they would remortgage, take out a loan, sell an asset, or use a gift from family, all of which shows the situation we’re dealing with here. Lots of people don’t have family who can give them money. Lots of people don’t have a house they can remortgage. Lots of people don’t have assets they can sell.

I’m also unsympathetic, I must say, to the special pleading from Scotland. The Scottish Council of Independent Schools says Labour’s VAT policy fails to respect the differences in Scotland and this is something I’ve heard before, including from staff at my old school: Scotland is different from Eton and all that posh English stuff. They also don’t like the term private school even though that’s what everyone calls them.

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In fact, the Scottish sector is based on exactly the same principles as the English one: with a few exceptions for bursaries, if you want to go private, you have to pay for it. It’s also worth pointing out that the UK city with the highest proportion of children at private school isn’t in England, it’s in Scotland (it’s Edinburgh and the figure is one in four). So nobody’s really buying the “Scotland’s different” argument.

Basically, in the end, I’m with Wes Streeting on this one; the health minister has made it clear he thinks there’s a lot of whinging going on. He told the schools the other day: “You have hiked your fees up year after year and now you’re pleading poverty.” He also had a swipe at charitable status: “They can take steps to mitigate against children being forced to drop out if they’re the good charities they say they are.”

Spot on. Charitable status has always been dubious: some private schools do work in the state sector but there’s a limit to how much schools that directly benefit from privilege can teach schools that are struggling every day with deprivation. You also have to ask how a place that charges many thousands of pounds, and by definition excludes many people on average-to-low incomes, can possibly be a charity.

(Image: Rachel Reeves and Wes Streeting)

I also don’t believe parents in any significant numbers will be pulling their children out of private school; there may be some I’m sure but parents will be reluctant to disrupt their children’s education. And as the OBR suggested when they looked at this issue, what’s more likely is some parents who haven’t yet sent their kids to private school but are thinking about it will decide they can’t afford it. In other words, the impact will be on prospective future pupils rather than current ones but again, not big numbers.

Obviously, these are predictions. But it’s likely that the schools will absorb some of the cost and pass on some of it to parents. And that parents will adjust in the same way that they’ve adjusted to every other rise. And that the private sector will carry on pretty much as before. I also wouldn’t want to criticise anyone who does what they think is right for their child – why would I, it’s what my parents did. But I would definitely want to criticise people who moan about paying a bit more for the decision they’ve made. Education is a right. But private education is a privilege. And moaning about privilege is not a good look.