Labour are planning on doing something no other British government of any colour has done before: taxing education services.
Their plans to impose VAT on private schools and take away business rate exemptions will make it an unaffordable option for many parents - and has already resulted in thousands of pupils moving from the private to the state sector - which costs the taxpayer money! Many more will follow - some with special needs.
This policy risks doing immense damage to both the private and state education sectors.
It's 1970s, class-war, lefty politics of envy all over again - and moreover is more likely to ultimately cost the taxpayer than provide the Treasury with additional cash. It is ill thought out and also badly timed - being brought in bizarrely, incredibly, cruelly not at the end of, but in the middle of the school year!
As for the hypocrisy, I found it telling that as a product of a state comprehensive school education I found myself in the chamber defending the role of private schools versus a privately educated Labour minister who now wants to increase the costs to parents on services he himself benefitted from.
Your new Labour government, ladies and gentlemen
