VAT on private school fees - will it change how you vote?

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

Following on from the other interesting thread about whether it will be implemented, will this policy change how you vote either way?
For me - i've voted Labour and Tory over the years, but Tory for the most recent GE's. This year, i've been thinking seriously about how i'd vote at the next GE and it wasn't definitely a Tory vote - i was definitely a floating voter.
However, my children are at PS and so i will now most definitely be voting Tory (not just because how the VAT will seriously impact us - child number 3 will now not be going to the prep that we had lined up for her, she'll enter the local primary until secondary school - but how i think that it will affect schools negatively and children negatively).
I have a lot of left leaning friends who educate privately and whilst they cannot bring themselves to vote Tory, they won't vote Labour either at the next GE because of this policy.

It seems to me that this policy is only a vote loser (ie many Labour voters and 'floaters' who school privately won't vote for them at the next GE) and not a vote winner (ie i can't imagine that many Tory or 'floaters' will vote for Labour solely on this policy).

AiBU to think that Labour have really shot themselves in the foot with this idea?

Did you even read my post or do you struggle with simple comprehension?

And not being able to afford £15k in fees per child does not mean you don’t prioritise education or that you’re some kind of parenting education hero if you can afford it.

Again drawing incorrect conclusions from what I wrote.

Oh I understand thanks. I think voters will too.

Votes will choose to vote for increases in taxes that they don't have to pay themselves.

Any policy that requires someone else to pay is always warmly received by Labour voters.

Ah well it will be a welcome change to a government that only cares about contracts for mates, the wealthy and dishonesty.

What on earth has that got to do with higher PAYE earners such as me?

Exactly it may well bite them later though

Nothing I guess but as you live in a democracy which is heavily reliant on voters who earn a lot less to function I guess you’ll just have to suck it up.

Won’t be worse than the many bites the current government has dished out to its voters.

It’s rather reliant on high tax payers unless you’re willing to pick up their tab if they opt out

Exactly! Therefore why should PS parents have to be the ones paying even more than they already do? It is hugely down to the inept government’s complete mismanagement of funds - yet I also wouldn’t trust the current Labour government to do a better job of things anyway - but again, my question is why should it be PS parents paying up to fund the state school inadequacy? Is it because of this ingrained distaste (to put it lightly) at anyone try to do better for themselves or give their children the best possible education they can?

You kind of need teachers, nurses, care workers, bin men, shop assistants, IT staff…unless you want to do the work yourself. A high wage doesn’t necessarily mean worth. It would be far better if wealth didn’t just go to the few generation after privately educated generation and was spend around a bit with better services for all.

Do you realise just how much tax high paid PAYE employees pay? Without it the economy is bankrupt.

And you need the taxes to pay for them. Obviously

And how you expect to function as a society without the lower paid?

Surely it would be best to spread higher earnings instead of the minority who are privately evicted being unfairly represented in all the top jobs. Why would we encourage this? Its gone on for far too long.

Educated

you’re obviously in the small minority who can afford PS; I plan to PS my children and I don’t think VAT should apply but I don’t think this is the most important issue of the day. The tories are running this country into the ground. They need kicked out. I don’t think Labour are very inspiring either but there isn’t really any credible alternative. 🤷‍♀️

I don’t know. My preferred outcome would be a coalition government. The major parties are all very middle of the road with a few extremists. They all lie about manifesto and policy in order to gain power. It would be refreshing to see a different approach where the parties produce a joint manifesto regarding the policies they agree on.
A true socialist Labour voter would be looking for an increase in base rate tax increase funding for all public services unfortunately very few people are true socialists.

I’d vote Labour for it.
maybe it’ll address the imbalance with more middle class kids forced into the ‘crap’ local schools. They’re crap because any who can doesn’t go

Do you really think that any parent who is forced out of using private schools would simply use the local state school? If the local school was any good they'd already use it and save themselves fortunes.

What will happen is that they'll use the 15/20k they no longer need for fees to fund a property in the best state school catchment area thereby taking a place away from a lower earning family.

I'm not sure how that helps address any imbalance. It will just make the private schools more elitist while at the same time removing some of the best state school opportunities away from lower earning families.

That's Labour in a nutshell for you.

Well that will just increase. Parents who can will use money to avoid them

Not really getting that argument re moving house. Very few will because few will be impacted by this. Given how many good/ outstanding schools there are many many will be in affordable areas and finally you need to have work near to your high PAYE minority job. Moving isn’t necessarily an option.

Any who can what?

There’s huge swathes of London where it’s either the local estate school or private. The local schools are driven down and down in otherwise affluent areas as they exclusively serve the most vulnerable families. If a chunk of these parents instead used any school in the borough it would drive up the schools. Parents with capacity to join the PTA etc, or just be the squeaky wheel. Frankly as well it attracts a certain type of teacher too, who wants to face mainly families with the ability to support their children. It would change the schools in London. These areas tend to be very well off areas, yet the schools are sinking. They are sinking because their cohorts aren’t evenly spread at all. It’s not 5% in these areas, it’s more like 50-60%.
Regardless, my vote isn’t swayed by supporting the 5% in avoiding the schools my children and their friends would attend 🤷‍♀️
I say this as someone who went to a ‘failing’ school, special measures/ rough… whatever name you give it. I did far better academically than many of those filtered into the private system locally to protect them and I’m an adult with robust mental health too. It’s often a bit hysterical the call to avoid the awful schools. Local gossip and fretting.