Member

Taken together, the removal of the business rates exemptions for schools that are charities and the levying of VAT on schools will perversely serve only to make independent schools more elitist and less accessible to many families up and down the country, which seems to be at odds with what this Labour Government purport to stand for. I am perplexed as to why Ministers are so keen to push through these measures. Just last week, they marched their Labour MPs through the No Lobby when the Liberal Democrats sought to impose a profit cap on the shameless profiteering of private equity-run special schools, which are bankrupting our local authorities. Many vulnerable children are missing out on the support that they need because of the behaviour of some of these companies, yet the Labour Government will not take action on them. They are, none the less, happy to tax parents and take away rates relief from those schools operating as charities.