Nigel Farage blasts Labour’s VAT raid on private schools: ‘Not morally right!’
Nigel Farage took aim at Labour's policy to charge private schools VAT on BBC's uestion Time.
Nigel Farage has slammed Labour’s planned VAT raid on private schools as “not morally right”. Independent schools do not currently have to charge VAT on their fees because of an exemption for the supply of education.
But one of Labour’s headline policies is to begin charging the 20 percent levy. Mr Farage said: “It’s not morally right to take away choice from parents and the opportunity for some young people the best possible education available.
“If I was Labour, I would introduce more scholarships to go to some of these elite schools.”
Piers Morgan, who appeared on BBC Question Time alongside Mr Farage, has described Labour’s plan for private schools as “the politics of envy”.
He said: “I think you should be apologetic. I think it is the worst kind of politics of envy. It is a war on aspiration ... it shows a total lack of knowledge about the type of people who send their kids to schools like Epsom College.
“I bet there are a lot of parents here who have scrimped and saved to give their kids the best chance in life, as my parents did when I went to a prep school and I went to a comprehensive after that.
“If you believe even half of the figures that have been projected as an impact of this ... it’s the smaller independent schools, they are going to go bust, then hundreds of kids are going to need to go into the state school system and it’s going to swamp our system.
“This is a politics of envy and Labour at its worst.”
The share of pupils in private schools across the UK has remained at about six to seven percent for the last 20 years, which equates to 560,000 to 570,000 pupils in England.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the policy will generate roughly £1.5billion a year, which Labour has said it will use to pay for 6,500 more teachers – one of its key election pledges.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said private school headteachers must make cuts like state schools have done.
Appearing longside the Mr Farage and Mr Morgan, he said: "“I know there’s lots of opposition from independent schools, who have pleaded poverty and say people will be priced out.
“Independent school fees have risen beyond inflation every year since 2010.
“I say to the headteachers, you’re going to have to cut your cloth accordingly like state schools have had to.”
