Saturday, September 30, 2023

UK
Class war row erupts as Starmer accuses Sunak of saying state education is not aspirational

Nick Gutteridge
Fri, 29 September 2023 


Sir Keir Starmer speaking at a campaign event in Scotland on Friday 
- GETTY IMAGES/JEFF J MITCHELL

A class war row has erupted between Labour and the Tories after Sir Keir Starmer accused Rishi Sunak of suggesting state schooling is not “aspirational”.

The Labour leader said the Prime Minister was “wrong” to have attacked his party’s plans to impose VAT on private schools as the politics of envy.

He hit back after Mr Sunak said the proposals would “punish” parents who want to “provide a better life for their kids” by making fees unaffordable.

The feud between the two men shows how the contentious policy has become a key Left-Right dividing line ahead of their party conferences.

Wading into the row, Sir Keir said on Friday: “Rishi Sunak is wrong to say that sending your children to state school isn’t aspirational.

“It’s the Government’s job to make sure schools set kids up to succeed. With Labour, they will.

“We will end tax breaks for private schools to invest in excellent state education for all.”
Class war

He was responding to remarks made by Mr Sunak during a media round with local radio and TV stations on Thursday ahead of the Tory conference.

The Prime Minister told BBC South Today that Sir Keir’s plan showed he was trying to launch a “class war” against middle-class parents.

“Labour’s approach to that shows, illustrates, that they just don’t understand the aspiration of families, like my parents, who were working really hard,” he said.

“They wanted to do something for their kids that they thought would make a difference to them. Labour’s approach to that is to clamp down on it.

“They don’t understand the aspiration that people have to provide a better life for their kids. They want to punish them for that as part of some class war. I don’t think that’s right.”

Labour has calculated that its policy will raise £1.7 billion a year, which it would use to fund improvements to the state education sector.

But that claim has been disputed by experts who have said the party’s sums are flawed and the proposals may not end up raising any money at all.
Schools becoming unaffordable

Analysis by The Telegraph has found that applying VAT will push up fees at a quarter of day schools to over £30,000, making them unaffordable for parents.

Sir Keir suggested in an interview this week that independent schools should absorb the costs rather than passing them on to parents.

But the headteacher at the school Sir Keir attended has also warned that the move will not provide the funding boost that state schools need.

Labour is “delighted” to keep the plans in the spotlight despite the criticism, a party source said, believing they will play well with the majority of voters.

In July a poll commissioned by the Independent Schools Council found that 48pc of voters thought private schools should keep their VAT tax relief.

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