Labour's VAT raid on private schools 'won't raise a penny'

Kemi Badenoch today launches a blistering attack on Labour's 'destructive' education policy.

Writing in the Daily Mail, the Tory leadership favourite hits out at the party's VAT tax raid on private school fees, branding it 'the politics of envy' which 'won't raise a penny'.

She accuses Labour of allowing its union baron 'paymasters' to dictate policy, including on overhauling Ofsted inspections and reducing the number of Free Schools.

And she hits out at the party for tearing up the Tories' new history curriculum, designed to tackle wokery and narratives about 'white privilege' following the Black Lives Matter protests.

She writes: 'Putting VAT on private schools is a tax on aspiration.

'Labour are doing it even though they know it will make some private schools close, leading to overcrowded classes in state schools, and leaving the taxpayer to pick up the tab.

'It's the politics of envy and it won't raise a penny.

'Abolishing Ofsted ratings is against the principle of personal responsibility, parental choice, and the concept of choice in education, which Conservatives champion. Labour's claims that Ofsted ratings don't work for parents simply is not true.

'Scrapping the ratings has been a longstanding request of the teaching unions, not parents.'

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Single-word ratings were scrapped by Labour amid demands to do so from teaching unions after headteacher Ruth Perry killed herself in 2023.

She took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from its highest rating, 'outstanding', to its lowest one, 'inadequate', over safeguarding concerns.

In her excoriating article, Ms Badenoch says that the Tories' new history curriculum had been designed to instil children with 'pride' in their country, 'whatever their ancestry'.

But she accuses Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson of ditching it because she has 'no intellectual curiosity whatsoever, just ideological fervour'.

She adds: 'By contrast, the academic (Professor Becky Francis) appointed by Ms Phillipson to review the entire curriculum is so out of touch with reality she thinks setting children by ability is 'symbolic violence'. This is student politics that has no place in education.'

She adds: 'This Labour government doesn't appear to have any underlying philosophy for education.

'They have violated several key principles in their first 100 days that show the seeds they are planting will be destructive to our country's future.'

It comes after Ms Badenoch and her leadership rival, Robert Jenrick, traded bitter blows as the contest reaches the final furlong, with the vote closing on Thursday.

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Speaking to GB News yesterday, Mr Jenrick responded to 'garbage' attacks she made in a Sunday newspaper about his 'integrity', saying: 'If this is the manner in which Kemi would conduct herself as leader of the party, the party has no future.'

Ms Bedenoch had told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview: 'Integrity matters...with me you'd have a leader where there's no scandal...I was never sacked for anything, I didn't have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety.'

The former business secretary's comments appeared to be a swipe at Mr Jenrick's past involvement in a planning dispute when he was housing secretary.

In 2020, Mr Jenrick approved an east London redevelopment scheme against the recommendation of a planning inspector.

But he later had to quash his own approval after conceding that the decision was 'unlawful' due to 'apparent bias'.