WATCH: 'Worth it!' Education Secretary defends private school tax raid after fierce grilling

GB News

Education Secretary Bridget Philipson has defended the Government's controversial private school tax policy despite acknowledging 31 school closures, telling GB News host Camilla Tominey the measure was "worth it" to fund state education improvements.During a heated exchange, Camilla grilled the Labour MP on the policy, saying: "You can't be happy with a situation where 31 schools have closed and, presumably, teachers have lost their jobs? You can't be happy with that, surely?"Labour removed the VAT exemption in January and ended business rates relief for independent schools in April, meaning that parents are expected to bear the additional costs to put their children through private education.The policy has faced sustained opposition from the sector, particularly regarding its impact on smaller, specialist schools that are already financially stretched.READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Transcript

00:00At the beginning, Labour said that you were putting VAT on private school fees to fund

00:04teachers. We then had a series of tweets from Keir Starmer suggesting that that money is

00:11actually funding affordable housing. What is the money that the VAT hike has produced going on?

00:18Is it going on teachers or is it going on loads of other Labour policies?

00:21So the amount of money that will be raised by the end of the Parliament is around £1.8 billion

00:26in terms of the VAT on private schools. Through the spending review and actually through the

00:32budget, we're already investing more beyond that. When you raise tax, of course, that money then goes

00:37into the Treasury and decisions are taken about how the money is spent. But through the spending

00:41review, we're investing now more in schools, in colleges, also in rebuilding more schools and

00:46alongside that, expanding free school meals eligibility to more children, the biggest expansion

00:51in a generation, which actually far outstrips anything we're going to raise through private

00:55school fees. But I do think it was the right decision to raise money to reinvest in state

01:00education. That is precisely what we're doing alongside investing more, for example, in social

01:05and affordable housing. These are all decisions that have been taken through the spending review

01:09and demonstrate our determination to build a better and fairer country.

01:13OK, but then you say better and fairer. The VAT on private school fees has adversely affected

01:19private school pupils, hasn't it? We've now got school closures up 67 percent. Eighteen private

01:26schools closed in 2024. Today, as of today, it's 31. And that's apparently affected twice as many

01:34SEN, special needs children. So was it worth it to see schools closed down as Education Secretary?

01:41So the number of private schools now is higher than it was last year. So we've actually got more private

01:46schools than last year. That's the figures that we have. What I would say, I mean, we discuss...

01:50How can we have more than last year if 31 have closed? How many have opened?

01:53There's more opening.

01:54How many have opened in comparison to 31 closing?

01:57I'd need to give, I'd need to look at the exact number, but I know that from the numbers I've reviewed,

02:01the numbers of private schools are higher now than they were last year.

02:04But in general, are you happy with schools closing?

02:08Private schools open and close all the time. That's what's happened over decades. That's not a new phenomenon.

02:12What I'm determined to do is to make sure that we do invest more in state education. Now,

02:17I'm always happy to answer any questions that you have on this or any other topic, and I'll answer

02:22them as directly as I can. But I do have to say, we've got around this quite a few times in the past

02:26when I've been on your show. Good to be with you again today. But actually, the vast majority of the

02:31people watching this will be sending their kids to state schools. And what they want to know is how

02:36we're improving standards in our state schools and delivering more teachers as we are into our state schools.

02:40For clarification, I've got a foot in both camps because I send a child to state school and I send

02:45a child, two children to private school. So I can see it from both sides of the coin. And the problem

02:50with people who have got their children in state schools, particularly in oversubscribed areas like

02:54mine, I live in Hertfordshire, is that they are affected because if private school children can't

02:59afford to go to their schools, they then apply to go to state schools. The state schools are then

03:04oversubscribed. So it does have an impact. There has been an exodus of private school children,

03:10so it is relevant to the state sector. But just in general, as an education secretary,

03:14how can you be happy with a situation where 31 schools have been closed down and presumably

03:20teachers have lost their jobs? You can't be happy with that scenario.

03:24Private schools are private businesses. They make decisions about their funding model,

03:27about who they appeal to. But actually, as I say, we've got more private schools this year than we

03:31did last. What I'd also add, when you talk about movement of students between different parts of the

03:36sector. On the secondary school offer day this year, when parents are offered their place at a

03:41secondary school, we actually saw an increase in the number of first choice offers. So the kind of

03:46the scaremongering, the talk that we apparently had about this would be have a terrible and devastating

03:50effect, I'm afraid just isn't coming to pass.

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