Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson during a visit to Nursery Hill Primary School, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, as the Party unveils its plans for childcare Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire Photographer: Stefan RousseauLabour’s flagship policy of adding VAT to private schools fees is supported by more than half the electorate – but not because they believe it will raise money.
But there is scepticism about the economic impact of the change to the VAT rules, with only 26 per cent of voters confident that it will be a net benefit. A party source said: “All the polling we’ve seen suggests it’s a popular policy – the public can see that we’re advocating significant investment in our state schools.
He denied a suggestion by Thornberry, the shadow Attorney General, that state schools would have to accept an influx of new pupils as a result of the fees policy and said: “We’ve had the analysis by the IFS on this, which says that there’ll be a negligible impact.