A Labour attempt to force the government to explore scrapping tax breaks for private schools and use the cash to recruit thousands of extra teachers has been rejected by MPs.
The Commons voted 303 to 197, majority 106, to reject Labour’s plans, aimed at establishing a committee of MPs to consider reforming tax benefits for private schools.
The proposed Fair Taxation of Schools and Education Standards Committee would have considered how extra cash from Labour’s policy of stripping charitable status from independent schools could be used to recruit more teachers, fund training and raise educational standards.
The opposition said its policy, announced at last autumn’s party conference in Liverpool, could raise £1.7 billion for the state education system.
But education secretary Gillian Keegan told the Commons: “If we were to educate all pupils that we are aware of who are receiving some form of scholarship or bursary in the state-funded sector, it is projected to cost more than £1.1 billion at the current average cost per pupil of £6,970 - and that doesn’t factor in any additional capital and workforce costs to create places for these pupils.”
She said the Commons Education Select Committee could look at the issues raised by Labour, adding: “This proposal is the politics of envy - it’s pulling the rug out from under good independent schools, in a weakly veiled, politically motivated, economically incoherent policy that will not help what is in our mission to ensure every child can reach their potential.”
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson had urged MPs to back Labour’s proposals, telling the Commons that asking the public to “subsidise a tax break for private schools is inexcusable” at “this time of economic uncertainty”.
“Putting VAT on independent school fees would raise about £1.7 billion - the chancellor’s words, not mine.”
But Conservative backbenchers also criticised the proposal, with North Dorset MP Simon Hoare describing the plans as “a goose which is going to lay the largest golden egg in educational history”.
Bassetlaw MP and former teacher Brendan Clarke-Smith said: “I am sure the opposition believe that private schools are simply for posh people wanting to send their children to Hogwarts to train as wizards or whatever it is.
“But the reality is independent schools take all different forms, and it is part of that choice, and it is about parental choice.
“It would have a negative effect on bursaries and scholarships and it would then be the preserve of the super rich who would be the only people who could afford to send their children to any of these schools, who of course would simply fill them where possible with people paying full fees.
“The actual damage will be done for those aspirational parents, the ones trying their best, the ones on bursaries, the ones with grant places.”
The Labour front bench contested claims that charitable status enabled private schools to provide bursaries and grants to poorer students.
Ms Phillipson told MPs: “Private school fees have far outstripped wage rises over the last 20 years. Boarding school fees now average a mammoth £37,000 a year.
“That’s more than the average worker earns in a year, beyond the reach of all but the very wealthiest in our society.
“Now, next Conservatives will turn to bursaries, but the Independent Schools Council’s own figures show that a mere 8 per cent of children get means-tested fee support and the partnerships with state schools that they use to justify this special status, they have gone down again this year.
“Protecting private schools isn’t about aspiration for all of our children, it’s about ensuring exclusive opportunities remain in the hands of a privileged few.”
