Lord Caine (Con)

My Lords, I support every word spoken by my noble friend Lord Lexden in his fine and typically erudite opening speech, and indeed the words of all other speakers so far in this debate. It is telling that the Government Whips have not been able to muster a single Back-Bencher to support the political choice to impose VAT on independent schools. I also note the lack of any speakers in this debate from the Liberal Democrat Back Benches. For the Minister today, it really is a case of herself alone. I also say what a pleasure it is to see my noble friend Lord Lexden back in his place today. There are many noble Lords on these Benches who have had reason to be indebted to him over many years, not least due to the fact that he gave a number of us our first job. It is very good to see him back. For the avoidance of doubt, and like a number of others in this debate, my entire schooling was spent in the state sector, in my case in the predominantly working-class constituency of East Leeds, where the local MP, a chap called Healey, was for five years in charge of the nation’s finances, when he presided over a severe debt crisis and bankrupted Britain. I am talking about 50 years ago, but it does seem like today. My final school, Temple Moor, was a fine grammar school that turned comprehensive some six years before I attended, although it retained some of the grammar school ethos during my time there. In supporting my noble friend, therefore, I am clearly not defending anything from which I have ever personally benefited. Like my noble friend, however, along with others on these Benches, I utterly deplore and condemn the nasty, spiteful and vindictive war being waged against the independent sector by this Labour Government. As has been pointed out, since it became clear that VAT was going to be introduced following the 2024 general election, 106 mainstream independent schools have closed and there has been a net loss of 79. According to the Department for Education’s own 2026 census, the number of pupils educated in the independent sector has fallen by over 33,000 in the past two years, as we have heard. That is well over double the 14,000 estimated by the Government in the short term and is rapidly approaching the 35,000 they said would be lost in the long term, although some studies predict the final total could be as high as 90,000. If anything epitomised the heartless approach of this Labour Government, it was the decision to impose VAT in the middle of an academic year, with the inevitable consequences and traumas for schools, teachers, parents and, above all, students. Will the Government now commission a credible independent review of the evidence, assumptions, modelling and forecasts that underpin these policies, tested against experience since their implementation? In my own area of Yorkshire, some particularly fine independent schools have been forced to close their doors. Fulneck, part of an historic Moravian settlement in Pudsey, which opened in 1753 during the reign of King George II and educated, among others, Herbert Asquith and Diana Rigg—Mrs Peel to some— as well as one of my closest friends, shut in July last year due to rising operational costs and falling numbers. I well remember my friend texting me on hearing the news to say how “devastated” he was, a reaction shared by many others. An institution that was at the heart of the local community and a unique part of the heritage of the West Riding of Yorkshire is now gone for ever. As the heart-wrenching statement issued by Fulneck put it: “This isn’t just the end of a school—it’s the end of a community, a history and a home for so many”. At the same time, Queen Margaret’s in York, educating girls since 1901, was forced to shut, citing mounting financial pressures from the introduction of VAT, increased national insurance and pension contributions, and the ending of charitable status business rates relief as major contributory factors. The site has recently been sold to a developer for a reported £5 million. It was followed last December by the oldest independent prep school in Leeds, Moorlands, after 127 years. It too pointed to VAT, national insurance and business rates relief. It is a similar story with Wakefield Independent School. If I can briefly stray outside Yorkshire, like my noble friend Lord Lexden, I was very sad this July to see the closure of Durham High School for Girls after 142 years, not least because that is where my partner Emma’s three hugely gifted daughters, Imogen, Olivia and Libby, each received an outstanding education. They are full of sorrow that the institution which has hopefully set them up for life is no more. I am the first to accept that there are a number of factors at play which can lead to school closures, such as falling numbers. What is, however, now undeniable is the devastating financial impact of the policies pursued by this Labour Government. As my noble friend Lord Redwood pointed out, they have hammered the independent sector with a triple whammy of increased national insurance, the removal of business rates relief and the imposition of 20% VAT, the first ever tax on education. For many independent schools struggling with tight margins, this has been enough to finish them. As we have heard, the Government seek to justify all this by arguing that that their focus is on the 93% educated in the state sector. Given my own history, I will take no lessons on the importance of providing good state schools for everyone. Yet the argument that state schools will be improved by waging war on the independent sector is little short of madness. As my noble friend Lord Lexden pointed out, the education tax was supposed to help pay for 6,500 more teachers, but teacher numbers have fallen, at a time when more students from independent schools that have closed have to be accommodated within the state sector, leading inevitably to higher class sizes for many. Then in June last year we were told by Keir Starmer on X, as my noble friend stated, that the money was being used invest in affordable social housing—so which is it? Of course, Labour’s attack on the academies that they once championed risks the huge progress in the state sector which under my party saw English students soar to the top of international league tables in reading and maths, and the number of schools rated as “good” rise from 68% to 90%. Labour Governments, rooted in socialist dogma, undermined academic excellence in the 1960s and 1970s, and now this “back to the 1970s” Government are doing the same today. They should be utterly ashamed of themselves for the damage, disruption and distress that their policies have caused and continue to cause. I look forward to a future Conservative Government reversing their nasty, cruel and vindictive policies.