2025-01-08
29 分钟This is the Guardian.
Today.
Are private schools losing their grip on the British establishment?
Marketing information.
It's the start of the new school term and for a minority of pupils in Britain, education just got quite a bit more expensive, 20% more expensive, after the Labour government decided to introduce VAT on private school fees.
Finally, 94% of children in the UK attend state schools.
To provide the highest quality of support and teaching that they deserve, we will introduce VAT on private school fees from January 2025.
Boarding for a year at Eton now costs £63,000.
At Cheltenham Ladies College, it's 55,000.
At Fettes College in Edinburgh, Tony Blair's old school, it's 50 grand.
Ending the VAT exemption is something Labour has promised for years.
And at this time of economic uncertainty, to ask the public to subsidise a tax break for private schools is inexcusable.
That was Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, in what has been called the most state school educated cabinet in UK political history.
Keir Starmer went to a grammar school.
Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, often reminisces about being taught in leaky porter cabins at her South London comprehensive.
When we were at secondary school, my sixth form was a couple of prefab huts in the playgrounds.
It's a big shift.
About 45% of the current cabinet are from working class backgrounds only.
I think 17% went to private schools.
Compare that to Rishi Sunak's cabinet.