The Shadow Education Secretary has accused the Government of imposing a “tax on education” by charging VAT on private school fees.
Speaking on GB News, Damian Hinds said: “…we have a motion coming to the floor of the House of Commons on the Government’s very damaging plans to put tax on education.
“I think that’s a very important debate and actually something on which all of the [Conservative] leadership contenders are united in saying we shouldn’t be taxing learning.
“We should be supporting people’s choices, and we should be supporting particular groups of pupils who will get caught out by this, including groups I don’t imagine for a moment Labour ever initially imagined they wanted to target.
“It’s time that the Government re-thought this plan and reversed it.
“It’s taxing education, but right around the world there’s a principle you don’t tax learning.
“There’s no tax break for having a child at private school. They probably talk a lot about removing a tax break. There is no tax break.
“A tax break would be if you had some reduction in your tax because you weren’t taking up a place in a State school. That’s not what happens.
“Everybody contributes, rightly, everybody contributes to State education, whether you take up a place or not, but for all sorts of reasons, some parents, if they’re able to, may decide to take a place at an independent school instead.
“And we think that the principle of parental choice is really important, obviously for the great majority of children that is in the State system.
“We also defend very strongly parents’ right to choose within the State system and the variety, the diversity of schools within that, but where they do choose an independent sector education, we also defend that right, and it’s a right that exists in many, many countries around the world.”
He added: “If children are displaced from the private sector, from independent schools into State schools, and some will, we don’t know how many, let’s be honest, and the Government haven’t come forward with their assessment of how many, but some will, and that will mean taking up more places in State schools.
“That will mean bigger class sizes. It will mean more disruption for schools, and ultimately, it reduces any parent’s chance of getting their preferred choice of school within the State system, because more of those schools will be full.”
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