Labour has been deliberately opaque when it comes to their plans for government, but on one issue Sir Keir Starmer has been uncharacteristically lucid. The leader of the opposition will be slapping VAT on private schools on ‘day one’ in Downing Street, a promise which has already prompted some parents to cancel places for September.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has made clear that this punitive, green-eyed levy on independent school fees will fund her broad-ranging education plans, from ‘higher standards’ (though the number of schools judged by Ofsted to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ increased from 68 per cent in 2010 to 90 per cent in 2023) to ‘higher paid jobs’ (these details remain unknown). But it is the plan for universal free breakfast clubs in every primary school in England that may rankle parents of privately educated children the most.
Once you make breakfasts universal you have opened the door to ‘free’ lunches
Around four-fifths of schools already have some level of breakfast provision for children.
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