You will wreck private schools that made you, minister tells Labour MPs
1 in 7 of them didn’t have state education, reveals top Tory
ONE in seven Labour MPs went to private school – twice the national average, the Education Secretary said yesterday.
Gillian Keegan revealed the figure as Sir Keir Starmer’s bid for the Government to look at his plans to hit private schools with a tax double whammy was defeated.
Labour wants to charge independent schools VAT and scrap their 80 per cent relief on business rates – claiming it will use the money to recruit state school teachers and improve standards. But the party came under fire in the Commons yesterday as it tried to establish a committee of MPs to consider reforming the tax benefits.
Labour was accused of ‘playground’ politics by a senior Tory MP, while independent schools said the ‘ideological policy’ would
‘Playground politics’
damage opportunities for young people.
And Mrs Keegan questioned why privatelyeducated Labour MPs would vote to ‘destabilise the sector that has provided the opportunities afforded to them’.
The Cabinet minister, who attended a state school in Liverpool, said the independent education sector is ‘incredibly diverse’.
‘Reigate Grammar School, a fee-paying independent school, which now charges £20,000 a year, once educated the Leader of the Opposition and, like many in this category, it started as a local grammar and it became independent.
‘In fact, 14 per cent of Labour MPs elected in 2019 attended private schools, double the UK average. I will be interested to see which of those honourable members decide to vote to destabilise the sector that has provided the opportunities afforded to them.’
The Education Secretary said she is ‘not focused on the less than 7 per cent of children who are attending independent schools, but rather much more focused on the 93 per cent who attend state funded schools as I did’.
Mrs Keegan, 54, has defended her right to wear a £10,000 Rolex watch and hit out at critics for undermining her working class upbringing. She left school at 16 and worked in factories – but won a fellowship for a master’s and had a successful career in marketing.
Several Labour frontbenchers attended fee- paying schools, including Sir Keir, who was a pupil at Reigate Grammar when it became a fee- paying school, although his fees were paid by Surrey County Council.
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour Party chairman, went to Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen, which now charges £14,000 a year, and John Healey, shadow defence secretary, attended St Peter’s School in York, where boarding fees are now £33,000 a year.
The Opposition said the policy – first announced by Jeremy Corbyn – could raise £1.7billion.
But Mrs Keegan told the Commons: ‘If we were to educate all pupils that we are aware of who are receiving some form of scholarship or bursary in the statefunded sector, it is projected to cost more than £1.1billion at the current average cost per pupil of £6,970 – and that doesn’t factor in any additional capital and workforce costs to create places.’
The education committee’s chairman, Tory MP Robin Walker, claimed the Opposition was trying
to ‘sideline’ his committee with its ‘playground’ politics.
But Labour’s shadow education spokesman Bridget Phillipson said that ‘ protecting private schools isn’t about aspiration for all of our children, it’s about ensuring exclusive opportunities remain in the hands of a privileged few’.
The motion was defeated by 303 votes to 197, majority 106.
Analysis by the Sutton Trust also found 41 per cent of Tory MPs went to independent schools.
THERE should barely be a safer place for expectant mothers and their babies than an NHS maternity ward.
Yet in recent years there have been harrowing scandals at hospital trusts where women and their newborns have died unnecessarily.
Despite a string of public inquiries making recommendations to improve care and reduce risks, a damning report has found a concerning decline in women’s experience of maternity services.
The care watchdog says pregnant women and new mothers more often feel abandoned. They have less confidence in the NHS. And fewer were able to get medical help during labour. This is a shocking state of affairs. But is it really any surprise?
As we reveal, instead of a laser-like focus on improving maternity provision, health chiefs have been captured by woke ideology.
Senior officials plan to spend £100,000 on a midwife training programme to improve care for pregnant transgender patients.
Based on a flawed study by trans activists that claims men can give birth, the initiative encourages midwives to use terms including ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘human milk’.
It risks bringing poor practice on to maternity wards and diverting midwives from the frontline – endangering women.
If the NHS cannot perform the basic task of looking after expectant mothers and their babies, what on earth is it for?