If VAT is added on Private School Fees, then it will be added onto University fees as well

Thanks @shewasrooting - I forgive you.

i am sorry @Araminta1003 it was a stupid error on my part

I’ve read the whole thread, including the never ending misunderstanding over charitable status, and accusations against some specific posters.

I just wanted to dispel a view that some posters have expressed, which is that all parents who send their children to private schools are Tories and will vote against Labour anyway. I can assure you that is very far from the truth. There are loads of Labour supporters among independent schools - in fact I have very few friends who identify as Tories - they are despised by most doctors, teachers, scientists, lawyers, bankers and other middle class people who form the bulk of independent schools communities.

Some parents are very worried by the VAT policy. Some, like us, are not best pleased about it, but we are not going to vote for the effing Tories because of it. That doesn’t mean we approve of the policy, or that it won’t mean a financial burden - it definitely will. Yes we are fortunate that we can afford the increase, but it will definitely have an impact on our budget.

Yes I’m lucky that we can afford the independent sector. But we don’t have a car, we use public transport everywhere. Contrast our neighbours with their Porsches and Landrovers who send their kids to the local state school. Meanwhile we pay our taxes and subsidise the state education sector even though we couldn’t use it (we were not offered any local state school for our children so had to turn to private schools because of school place shortages in the baby boom years). Why are we being singled out for an increased contribution, when other people who earn substantially more are not?

Some posters on this thread have a very black and white, us vs them view of the world. Whereas the reality is vastly more complex. I’m not asking for a shoulder to cry on, but please don’t think that all parents who choose private schools are arsehole Tories.

Because of people being driven by jealousy, because people are short sighted, because people believed the shite on the bus about the NHS. So they will believe any old shite that chimes with their set of misguided beliefs.

There is no proposal to remove charity status.

No, it is not. Labour have confirmed they will not be seeking to remove charitable status. All they are seeking to do is change the law so that Vat can be charged on education. This can go many ways, and it is not unfathomable that university education could end up affected. But it is absolutely not about removal of charity status.

I think there are state boarding schools now where the education is free and parents just pay for the board which I think will be covered by the ministry of defence.

@shewasrooting

Hansard 1980

@shewasrooting - are you really still going rather than apologising?

And this is why hardly anyone wants to be an MP anymore. Vicious attacks on social media and in real life. 2 MPs dead. Misquoting, mislabelling, cliches, well done @shewasrooting MN Bingo

@shewasrooting I agree with this, a sorry for getting it wrong could do

Yes, the whole post was a quote. You’ve got the wrong end of the stick and need to apologise to the poster.

That’s Eton , Harrow , Uppingham , etc. This policy really makes not a jot of difference to them. People who pay for boarding will still pay and the schools will mitigate by recovering VAT on capex and introducing differential fees for overseas pupils

As previously discussed the ones who are worried are your local independent possibly ex Grammar day school who don’t have a big capital project every year and whose pupil base is much more sensitive to price . For most of these schools roughly 70% to 80% of their input costs are teachers and support staff salaries , no VAT to recover there or other costs like food also no VAT. Some of these schools are on very tight margins and I suspect t some especially at primary level and those that take a lot of children with SEN will fold./merge.

no way! the army wasn’t paying for private boarding school fees for NCO!

2007 for example The Ministry of Defence paid out £100m last year to subsidise fee-paying boarding school education for the sons and daughters of military officers and some senior NCOs, The Herald can reveal.

but you’re saying 20 years previously they were?

in any event PP describes herself as coming from a high ranking military family

what that working class and not privileged?

Well if they are going to be so much better off if the labour policy goes through why are they worried?

Charitable status of private schools isn't being changed - Labour dropped that part of their proposal.

In answer to OP I would expect a challenge to add VAT to university fees as well, yes, but it won't come from the government. I think it's one way interested parties will try to undermine and wreck the proposed VAT changes.

The army allowance pays for both commissioned and non commissioned . Plenty of NCOs children at my girls boarding school in the 1980s

Private schools pay VAT , and for those who have big capital projects they pay shedloads of it. If Labours policy goes through as it stands they will now be able to reclaim that VAT. At the moment they cannot.

Academies and LEA schools reclaim their VAT either under s126 or s33 .

there is a specific issue with sixth form colleges which is current going through the courts.

You have got the wrong end of the stick with this. Very beginning of post is opening quotation mark. Scroll all the way down to above link - closing quotation mark. I probably wouldn't choose to post a huge quote like that but Araminta isn't talking about herself there.

@shewasrooting the post you’ve copied from another thread is a quote from Diane Young

She was rooting - Good for you - always useful to drop into personal attacks.

let’s start with Starmer going to fee paying school and pulling the ladder up behind him.

@Thesmokinggnu

epic hypocrisy on the part of @Araminta1003 is what i have “evidenced” from this thread

So what we have evidenced here on this thread is this is the politics of division.

Remembering that elections in the UK are not proportional representation, elections are not won by playing to your core vote. Labour have a real opportunity to unite lots of moderate liberal middle class voters.

However, they will definitely lose votes from this, possibly in marginal Tory seats they hope to win. This could be a massive own goal.

two questions @Araminta1003

So you privately educate your children as you explicitly state on the thread?

Do you come from a “working class background” despite saying your background is in high ranking military and indeed your parents were posted abroad and you boarded in a private school?

@Araminta1003

You are misquoting to discredit my questions. Cheap shot. Hot air.

example? i am literally copying and pasting!