Keir Starmer went to private school

[Asking4afrend]

AIBU to be shocked that Keir Starmer went to private school? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. So he enjoyed an excellent education which increased his social mobility and then wants to bring down the system that helped him, even when they gave him a 100% bursary so that his parents didn’t have to pay the fees?

This is from wiki:

Starmer passed the 11-plus examination and gained entry to Reigate Grammar School, which at the time was a voluntary-aidedselective grammar school.[1][12] The school converted into an independent fee-paying school in 1976, while he was a student. The terms of the conversion were such that his parents were not required to pay for his schooling until he turned 16, and when he reached that point, the school, by now a charity, awarded him a bursary that allowed him to complete his education there without any parental contribution.

I only found out about this today when I was googling the school for another reason and looked up the alumni. What a hypocrite. You didn’t hear about this in the election during all his “my father was a toolmaker” speeches.

I've got friends who are teachers. I know what our local state and private schools pay, and the perks. And I know a bit about the reserves that the big private schools have. Yes, the tiny privates are precarious and many going bust, and the best state are better than the worst private, but on average you can't compare.

Then they must be lucky. All the local private schools here match the state pay scale.

Haven’t RTFT, but how could we possibly run a country if politicians couldn’t change a policy that they once benefited from?

The majority of politicians at the time would have grown up with mortgage interest tax relief which probably benefited household finances. That was abolished.

What about tenants’ rights? Some politicians grew up in rented homes and some with parents who were landlords? So can we never change any such rules because someone will end up a hypocrite either way?

Different area I guess.

“Not that many countries have the state school - private school divide”

Actually, we do not have a higher percentage of kids in private schools relative to our European neighbours, far from it.

What this stinks of is Labour go to state schools. Tories go to private schools. It is the thought police, AND what is more it is discriminatory towards kids with SEND, breaches every EU law principle, common sense principle and Reeves budget as well as 13000 have left already (as reported by Schools Week and the ISC census), plus of course in the North and North East the percentage of kids leaving the private sector is much higher than in London. All completely predictable.

“At 1,380 ISC members that participated in both the 2024 and 2025 censuses, pupil numbers dropped by 2.4 per cent, or around 13,000.
The government had estimated there would be around 3,000 more pupils in the state sector as a result of the introduction of VAT, with another 300 expected because of business rates.
However, the decrease from 551,578 to 538,214 takes numbers closer to the population seen in 2022 – 544,000, though the drop is more than double the 5,000 decrease seen after the pandemic hit in 2021”

Yes, I know they do. And if there was a campaign to exempt children with EHCPs from the VAT payments I would happily campaign along with them.

They have fallen back to where they were in 2022

Not quite an exodus, neither are state schools overwhelmed by it

That wouldn't do much for all the kids with serious SENs who can't get an EHCP because of massive institutional resistance to giving them out.

well I did. Dd went to a comp where only 34% of kids passed maths and English. She did absolutely fine. Went onto A levels, got a 1st class degree at uni. Doing a Masters at the 5th ranked university worldwide for her subject. It didn’t do her any harm.

obviously if schools were better that would be great and hopefully with the extra money from the vat there will be improvements in such low rated schools

The VAT policy will result in less money for state schools not more. That’s why they are making redundancies instead of welcoming 6500 new teachers as Labour claimed would happen.

And what about those with SEN in Scotland or Wales?

It was a state school when he started there. This is continually spouted by people who could easily Google it for the truth.

He’s just asking them to pay their bloody taxes . Like the rest of us! Bore off 👉🏾

Do you realise that this policy will cost the general taxpayer more than will be raised in VAT?

You will be subsidising the state school places for children who move from PS. You will be funding the tax relief for pensions contributions for those parents now that they don’t have fees to pay.

You will literally be paying your taxes to families who would otherwise have been happy to continue using private schools.

Why did Keir Starmer accept over £100,000 worth of freebies? Why can't he pay for things himself like the rest of us!

No idea, I ask myself the same question. Although I think £100k is a tad exaggerated.

He didn’t.

Sakes. He didn’t

Clav does enjoy winding us up.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/18/keir-starmer-100000-in-tickets-and-gifts-more-than-any-other-recent-party-leader

Whatabout your hero Boris.........

Keir Starmer claimed he was 'nothing like Boris Johnson.'

🙄

Very true that he isn't

Accepting freebies and the free state places is doing everyone else a favour.

I still want to know if tutors made their way into Lord Ali’s flat.