A quarter of adults think Labour’s plan to lump taxes on private schools is driven by jealousy, a poll has found.
But despite the finding, more than half support the policy, which experts say will raise £1.6bn, funding the party’s plans to invest in the state sector.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party will impose 20 per cent VAT on private schools in England in its first year in power if it wins the next election.
Currently they benefit from an 80 per cent discount on business rates, and they also do not have to pay VAT on school fees. The increase could be passed on to parents, with somebody paying £15,000 a year currently having to find an additional £3,000.
And an Ipsos poll of more than 2,000 people found a quarter felt the policy has been drawn up to punish parents who send their kids to private school.
But 57 per cent of adults supported the policy, with a majority of Conservative voters opposed but most Labour supporters in favour, the Telegraph reported.
Private school leaders have condemned the policy, warning that the VAT charge will mean school fees will have to be increased, and it could lead to the closure of some smaller schools with parents unable to afford the cost and instead sending their child to state school.
Independent Schools’ Bursars Association chief executive David Woodgate said: “Schools will be doing everything they can to plan for Labour’s tax on children’s education. Without policy detail, it is difficult for them to do so fully – and impossible to know the full implications for their budgets.”
They have also hinted at plans to look for loopholes to avoid the charge.
Helen Pike, master at Magdalen College School in Oxford, said: “There is no impact assessment on this policy – it’s a headline.”
She told The Independent: “I have a big problem with VAT because it is a regressive tax. This is going to hit the people who can afford it least the hardest – the majority of schools don’t have the capacity to absorb the increase.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the policy is likely to have a limited effect on the number of pupils attending fee-paying schools.
Addressing the policy at last month’s Labour Party conference, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said “high and rising standards cannot just be for families who can afford them”.
“We will end the tax breaks that private schools enjoy to deliver high and rising standards, in every school for every child,” she added.
