Raid on school fees could see tens of thousands out of institutions

Tens of thousands of children may be forced out of their private schools due to Labour's tax raid, the Treasury has admitted.

Lord Livermore, financial secretary to the Treasury, suggested that charging VAT on private school fees could displace up to 45,000 pupils.

His comment is significant as it means even the Government believes a large number of pupils may leave, with the state sector having to accommodate them.

Yesterday it prompted renewed calls for the implementation of the policy, due on January 1, to be delayed until the start of the next school year.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Treasury Minister Lord Livermore said yesterday: 'As far as the state sector goes, to the extent that pupils move at all, the number of pupils who may switch schools represents a very small proportion of overall pupil numbers in the state sector, likely to be less than 0.5 per cent of total UK school pupils of more than 9 million.'

The proportion the minister quoted amounts to 45,000 pupils.

He added that the policy will 'raise revenue to fund the Government's objective that every child has access to high-quality education.'

The money raised will help fund 3,000 new nurseries, recruit 6,500 new teachers and roll out breakfast clubs to all primary schools in the state sector.

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However, champion of independent schools Lord Black of Brentwood said the policy is 'vindictive' and 'all pain, no gain'.

Lord Black is the president of the Boarding Schools' Association and Institute of Boarding, as well as the chairman of governors at Brentwood School.

He said: 'The impact on state schools of this vindictive policy will actually be meaningless, with 6,500 extra teachers across 20,000 schools in England adding just a third of one teacher to each school, yet the impact of children at independent schools will be enormous, with the losers those who have to leave half way through the year because their parents can't afford to pay, the children of service families relying on boarding schools so their parents can defend us and children with special needs who are exceptionally vulnerable.

'Their lives will be upended for nothing - all pain and no gain.'

Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Garden of Frognal told the House of Lords: 'This is a deeply damaging and mean measure.

'It is unlikely to hurt wealthy parents, but it will hit those with limited means trying to do their best for their children with special needs or specialist skills.

'Please will the Government at least defer to September to avoid the traumas of mid-term changes.'

However, the minister maintained the start date for the policy will remain in January.

Estimates on how many pupils will be pushed into the state sector by Labour's policy have varied.

One of the more conservative predictions came from the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year, which said it could be up to 40,000 - or seven per cent of the private school population.