At least two private schools have now blamed Labour’s VAT policy for forcing them to close next month.
In the latest example, Elizabeth Laffeaty-Sharpe said Sir Keir Starmer’s planned tax raid was the ‘last nail in the coffin’ for Downham Preparatory School in Norfolk, which she founded 40 years ago.
Almost a third of the pupils have special needs, while the parents are ‘ordinary’ people ‘like plumbers and electricians’ who would be unable to afford a 20 per cent hike in fees, she explained.
Last month it was reported that Alton School in Hampshire would be closing, in part because of Labour’s plans – which Sir Keir insists he would impose immediately on entering No 10 next month.
Mrs Laffeaty-Sharpe told The Sunday Telegraph that Downham – where fees are £7,800 for younger pupils and £11,820 for years seven and eight – was ‘just your local little primary school providing a service mostly for children who can’t cope in big classes’.
She continued: ‘We will not be the only one. Small schools just cannot survive this. My parents are ordinary parents, like plumbers and electricians. They’re not rich people.’ Mrs Laffeaty-Sharpe added: ‘There’s an extreme lack of places for children with special needs [in the state sector]. There’s just nowhere for them.’
Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teacher union, has warned about the knock-on impact on state schools.
He said: ‘We’ve already got a teacher supply crisis, we’ve got serious underfunding and underinvestment and depleted capacity in relation to support services for children.’