Labour Shadow Attorney Emily Thornberry has defended her party’s plans for a VAT raid on private schools, even if it means larger classrooms.
The party’s proposed tax is sparking furious debate amid fears many children could be forced out of the private sector.
The proposal will see tax exemptions that private schools enjoy being scrapped. The most significant of these in terms of revenue is VAT, and Starmer is pledging to add this to private school fees at a standard rate of 20 per cent.
Speaking on GB News, Thornberry admitted state schools could see an expansion of classrooms “in the short term” to accommodate those departing private education.
Emily Thornberry joined Camilla Tominey on GB News
GB NEWS
“There are schools which have vacancies, my primary schools and secondary schools have space and people should send their children there”, she said.
“If we have to have larger classes, we will have larger classes.”
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Camilla Tominey interjected to ask how big exactly the classes should be to accommodate a potential swathe of children exiting private schooling.
“Oh come on”, Thornberry snapped back.
“What we need to do is raise the money to make sure children going to state school have had breakfast.
“That’s where our priority is and we need to raise the money from somewhere.
Hundreds of thousands of children could be pulled out of private schools under Labour's 20% tax plan, research suggests GETTY
Emily Thornberry says her priority is underfunded state schools
GB NEWS
“What we’re going to do is, we’re saying where all the money is coming from.
“We will have a properly costed manifesto and all our commitments, we will say where the money is coming from.
“There may well be complaints about it, I understand that, but I’m afraid that if I have a choice between putting VAT on private schools and making sure my children will have breakfast before they start learning, I know where I am.”
Camilla pointed out to Thornberry that one of Tony Blair’s keystone pledges of his premiership was to keep class sizes at 30 pupils or less.
But with Thornberry suggesting increased classroom sizes may become a reality, the current incarnation of the Labour Party appears to be at odds with Blair’s stance on the matter.
Asked whether we can expect to see classes of up to 40 pupils, Thornberry said on GB News: “There are classes that are larger.
“Because of the underfunding of schools, the number of classroom assistants have gone.
“In private schools I have visited, they have classes of eight, nine or 10. Fantastic.
“In state schools, they no longer have the number of classroom assistants we’re used to. That is a tragedy. We underfund our state system.
“What we’re doing is ensuring as one of our first steps, putting more funding in our state sector.”