Can private schools survive Labour’s tax grab?

The latest headmaster of Eton has been recruited from a major private equity firm to help drive the brand’s growth in China. The consortium of hedge funds that own Winchester has been involved in a bitter takeover battle with Rugby, centred mainly on the redevelopment value of its playing fields. Westminster has been acquired by Meta, the owner of Facebook and WhatsApp, to develop campuses in the Metaverse, Netflix has acquired Marlborough to use as a set for romcoms, while Elon Musk has taken control of Ampleforth, sacked most of the teachers and rebranded it as ‘W’ for reasons that no one can quite fathom.

This all may sound fanciful, but fast forward to 2027 or 2028, and that could well be a selection of headlines plucked from the business pages. The serious point, however, is this. Once the Labour party removes the charitable status of private schools, as seems inevitable, the whole sector will change dramatically and start operating far more like a normal industry.