Rachel Gilmour

It is a joy to speak under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell-Buck. I will be brief. I grew up the eldest of four children, and the only girl. My brothers and I were all grateful recipients of scholarships and bursaries to public schools. I am, believe it or not, a Cheltenham lady, and my brothers all attended King’s, Canterbury. Two served in His Majesty’s armed forces—Johnny was a half-colonel in the Grenadier Guards, and Ben still serves as a brigadier in what we still call the Black Watch. My other brother, James, worked as a heart surgeon before serving his community in Wales as a GP. In my own small way, I have tried to contribute to my country and my community. I am now serving as an MP, but I have also been a town and district councillor. I worked for international and national non-governmental organisations, and the National Farmers Union and the Environment Agency. That was made possible for all of us in large part by the education that we were fortunate enough to receive. As Members can imagine, I very often get asked by people who tend to put their cross in the blue team box why I am a Liberal, and my answer is this: I am a Liberal because I was very well educated and I have a conscience. As a Liberal, individual political choice is part of my political DNA, and that is why I resist any attempts to erode choice. Steps taken to remove parental choice over where and how children receive their education are, to my mind, politically indigestible. Ultimately, parental agency must come first in any discussion about children’s future; it is not for the state to disrupt that dynamic. There are a few misconceptions about private schools in this country. One is that most of those who are fortunate enough to attend independent schools are somehow part of the elites. Many students in such schools up and down the country hail from families that have saved and made many a sacrifice to strive to provide the best possible education for their children. My parents were both teachers—not a particularly highly paid profession. This policy would overturn a long-established VAT exemption on independent schools and would hit hard-working families the most. Those schools would be forced to increase fees to stay afloat, cutting off opportunity for many children and driving the further balkanisation of our education system, with the result that only the most financially fortunate would be able to afford private school fees.