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Private schools should be taxed like dining out, says Rachel Reeves

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves - Kirsty O'Connor/PA
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

Private schools should be taxed in the same way as dining out at a restaurant or buying a washing machine, the shadow chancellor has argued.

Rachel Reeves defended Labour's plans to introduce a new levy on independent schools if elected and promised "every penny" of the tax take would go towards funding state education.

The party has retained Jeremy Corbyn's policy of scrapping the charitable status of private schools and claims this would raise £1.7 billion, as the institutions would lose their 20 per cent VAT exemption and have to pay business rates.

During the first monthly Ring Rachel phone-in on LBC, one caller asked: "How on earth can Labour even think about putting tax on private school fees when people are suffering with the cost-of-living crisis?"

Ms Reeves said: "You go into any state school and you see the shortage of staff, the shortage of books... Politics is about choices and private schools are many things, but I don't think that they are charities.

"And I don't see why you shouldn't pay VAT on sending your child to a private school in the same way you pay VAT if you take your family out for a meal at the weekend.

'If you pay to go private, you should pay VAT'

When pressed by host Iain Dale on whether she was comparing a child's education to dining out, Ms Reeves replied: "What I'm saying is you're paying for a service, you're paying for something... I'm saying there are state schools providing education and if you're paying to go private, you should be paying VAT.

"You pay VAT on a holiday, on a washing machine... A washing machine, most people wouldn't say [it] is a luxury, but you pay 20 per cent VAT on it when you buy one. We would use every penny of [the] money and put it into our state schools."

While Labour has insisted it does not want to abolish private schools altogether, its policy has been branded by Rishi Sunak as an attack on "aspiration".

Ulez a 'balancing act'

Elsewhere in the programme, Ms Reeves described the ultra-low emissions zone introduced by Sadiq Khan, Labour's Mayor of London, as a "difficult balancing act".

When asked her thoughts on the policy, she said: "That is not my job and I'm not a London MP. But I do understand why Sadiq wants to have clean air in London because people are dying because of the pollution and the air pollution, so we can't just stick with the status quo."

On a day that saw nurses and ambulance workers walk out in the biggest strike action the NHS has ever seen, Ms Reeves was also asked for her thoughts on the current wave of industrial action.

"I don't want to say that I support strikes because strikes are a sign of failure," she said. "If it was Labour in government today, I'd be doing everything in my power to avert strike action, and that means getting around the negotiating table."

However, she refused to commit to another caller's request for tax cuts for public sector workers, citing the turbulence caused by the mini-Budget last year.

"I don't make any commitments to lose tax revenue, or to make spending commitments, without explaining where the money is going to come from - because that's the mess that the last prime minister, Liz Truss got into, where that left us."