TV presenter Alexander Armstrong has launched a scathing attack on Keir Starmer’s VAT policy on private schools in The Telegraph.
Armstrong also expressed concerns about Starmer’s inheritance tax reforms affecting farming families.
“Another source of anger,” he admitted when discussing the inheritance tax changes on farming.
He went on to reveal his personal connection to the issue: “We’re farmers, of farming stock. We’re very much affected [by the changes].”
Private school
On the subject of private schools he wrote: ‘I’m feeling really, really angry about that, and extremely poor.
‘In our case, private school is the only place available for our children to learn music. Our 10-year-old has special educational needs, he couldn’t survive in the state system. We have chosen that not because we’re evil, and not because we want to buy a head-start for our children, but we want them to have as good an education as we can get.
‘There’s a real anger towards private schools from some quarters and I find that so antithetical to everything I believe about society. There was something really vituperative about [Starmer] bringing it in in the middle of the school year.
‘I loathe tribal politics. I’m allergic to it from the Right and scared of it from the Left. It felt really unpleasant and nasty.’
It comes Dr Rupa Huq, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said putting 20 per cent VAT on independent school fees was punishing ‘working people.’
She told the Commons: ‘Could there be when this growth comes… a way of undoing it or something? What I would suggest is possibly doing it on a turnover basis – so for your enormous schools that can afford it, yes – but for the smaller ones who have been caught in this trap, no.’
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