Private school changed my life… but here’s why Labour is right to now rinse them

I’m grateful to have won a bursary to attend Yorkshire’s answer to Hogwarts, says Sufyan Ahmed. But Labour’s plan to impose a 20 per cent tax on fee-paying schools is only fair – even though it means some will go to the wall

Four out of 10 private schools could close if Labour implements a 20 per cent tax levy (PA Wire)

From the age of seven, my weekends revolved around one thing: tutoring sessions to get me through the 11-plus, at the behest of my mother, who had her heart set on me attending the local private school.

I grew up in Bradford, one of the most deprived cities in Yorkshire – so Bradford Grammar School felt like an elusive, Hogwarts-esque dream, completely out of reach for someone like me. However, thanks in no small part to my parents’ determination, I defied the odds and attained an offer from this prestigious school.

I was only able to take it up thanks to a bursary that covered 70 per cent of the school fees, and which made it just about affordable for my family. This meant I avoided having to attend one of the city’s many failing state schools, where two in five schools are considered sub-standard by Ofsted.

This school changed my life. Trips abroad to Italy, Iceland and the US, career talks from senior diplomats, networking events with thriving business leaders, and mentoring for Oxbridge applicants were just a handful of the opportunities afforded to me. It’s the reason why I’m about to graduate from one of the top universities in the world – the London School of Economics.

As a public schoolboy, you might assume, therefore, that I would be opposed to Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private schools. It’s a policy that could lead to the closure of four out of 10 private schools and, according to one study, push as many as half of all fee-paying pupils into a state system that’s already struggling. Class sizes in comprehensives are already at a near-record high.

However, my experience of being educated at a private school, and in an extremely impoverished neighbourhood at that, makes me wholeheartedly support Labour’s policy.

According to the IFS, placing a 20 per cent levy on private schools would raise £1.6bn a year — money that state schools desperately need.

I always felt a bit uncomfortable that, while I was enjoying the benefits of a private education that added so much to my life and boosted my career potential, just down the road were other institutions, attended by my neighbours, that were struggling to stay open due to chronic underfunding by central government. The opportunities I was lucky enough to receive should be available to everyone, not just a select few who are able to pay to secure a significant head start in life for their children.

The stark divide between rich and poor in the British education system is plain to see: private schools charge average annual fees of around £15,000, while the state spends just £8,000 per pupil per year – a gap that has more than doubled since 2010.

For an opposition party that has been accused of being light on policy, this one concrete idea from Labour has already moved the dial. As a sector, private schools have already raised their fees by 8 per cent this year, in anticipation of such a move by a Starmer government.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has described the Labour’s tax policy as the “politics of envy”. Not entirely helpfully, shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has dismissed concerns, saying: “I’m sure that private schools can make efficiencies in the same way that state schools have been making efficiencies this last decade or so.”

Alton School in Hampshire recently announced it will close at the end of term, citing “adverse political and economic factors” that have hit admission numbers, making its future operation “unviable”. Parents with children at the school have pointed the finger at Labour tax policies, though they would do well to look also at the cost of living crisis brought about by the Conservatives, too.

It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the sob stories currently coming from the headteachers of independent schools, who say Labour’s policy will price middle-class students out of the sector, when on average private schools themselves have increased their fees by 55 per cent in real terms for 20 years.

Attending private school on a bursary was a great privilege and I hope it has changed the trajectory of my life. However, with deteriorating public services, it is impossible to defend the VAT exemption. It’s time for private schools to face up to reality.