Thread by @docrussjackson

Quick #THREAD on fee-paying schools.

“When I say we are going to pay for kids to catch up at school, I also say it’ll be funded by removing private schools’ charitable status.”

Under current rules, independent school fees are exempt from VAT.

#EnoughlsEnough

Starmer has repeatedly pledged to remove independent schools' charitable status on policy grounds and to increase tax revenue (as they will no longer be subject to the beneficial tax treatment enjoyed by charities).

Withdrawing charitable status and the current VAT exemption, it is claimed, would raise around £1.7 billion, with this money being earmarked for Labour's other education sector commitments.

Some of the money raised from taxing independent schools would likely be spent on filling teacher vacancies and gaps across state schools, and also to create a 'National Excellence Programme' which aims to boost the number of 'outstanding schools' in all areas of the country.

The Mail's framing of these entirely sensible measures as "class war" is absurd, desperate, & typically divisive bullshit from Britain's most reactionary billionaire-owned publication (and yes, there is a fair bit competition for this title).

THIS is what "class war" looks like:

And as for fee-paying Private Schools - which "educate" just 6% - 7% of all children in Britain - we know that Britain’s most influential people are over 5 times more likely to have been to a fee-paying school than the general population.

ifs.org.uk/articles/growi…

And certain schools - like Eton for example - have contributed to lumbering us with some of the worst, most damaged, most dysfunctional & most dangerously irresponsible & destructive Ministers in British history.

https://twitter.com/docrussjackson/status/1383739048271908866?s=20&t=Q1joR6uuTr_CUpx43PaIWw