Thank you to those of you have contacted me concerning private schools.

Governing is about priorities, and the current Prime Minister’s decision to protect private schools instead of investing in great state education for all pupils has made clear where the Conservatives’ priorities lie.

There are 9 million school pupils in England, and only 6.5% of those attend private schools. At present, private schools are granted charitable status which means they benefit from tax breaks unlike other schools. So, as families are facing the highest tax burden for 70 years and state schools also struggle with rising energy bills and costs, Government ministers have once again chosen to protect tax breaks for the few, rather than act in the interests of everyone.

A future Labour government would make fairer choices. Labour would scrap private school’s charitable status, ending the tax breaks for private schools.  As a result, this would raise £1.7 billion from both VAT and businesses rates and bring private schools in line with other educational services like nurseries and other childcare providers that are required to pay their way.

Labour would invest this money into driving up standards in every state school across the country, through a national excellence programme recruiting thousands of new teachers, closing the digital divide by ensuring every child has access to a laptop or device, and providing professional mental health support for every child to ensure that young people leave education ready for work and ready for life.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.