Labour’s controversial VAT raid on private school fees has claimed another victim, with Godolphin Prep in Salisbury announcing its closure at the end of the school year.
The school becomes the third private school in a single week to announce it will close its doors, following announcements by Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire and Amherst School in Loughborough.
Parents were informed on Wednesday that Godolphin Prep, which charges £12,196 a year for girls aged 3 to 11, could no longer sustain operations due to declining pupil numbers and mounting financial pressures caused by Labour’s tax hike.
The Telegraph reported a letter to parents read: “The future for stand-alone prep schools is particularly precarious at present; not only due to the introduction of VAT on fees but also in terms of ensuring we remain at the cutting edge.”
CRISIS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The closures come just weeks after Labour introduced the 20% VAT charge on private school fees on January 1. From April, private schools will also face new business rates, adding even more financial strain.
The Independent Schools Council (ISC), representing 1,400 member schools, has warned that more closures are inevitable, disrupting education for pupils and causing job losses for dedicated teaching staff.
As reported in the Telegraph, Julie Robinson, ISC chief executive, said: “Many people warned the Government that VAT would prove a bridge too far for schools already under financial pressure – we are now seeing the reality: school closures, dedicated staff losing their jobs and children having their education disrupted.
Ms Robinson added: “This is something that we will unfortunately see again over the coming months and years – with more communities losing an employer, a partner and an educational hub for local children. We urge the Government to think again and work with us to mitigate the effects of this damaging policy.”
DEVASTATING IMPACT ON SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES
Maidwell Hall, a 114-year-old boarding school once attended by Earl Spencer, and Amherst School are among the latest casualties of Labour’s policy.
A report from the Good Schools Guide warns: “If this can happen to Maidwell, it can certainly happen to other small, country prep schools with boarding.”
State schools may also feel the strain as parents forced out of private education turn to an already overstretched public sector.
BURDEN ON PARENTS AND TEACHERS
Independent School Bursars Association chief executive David Woodgate cautioned that some schools might need to sell off land to balance their books. Meanwhile, other schools are already cutting bursaries for disadvantaged pupils.
Parents and teachers are raising the alarm about the broader consequences of Labour’s tax raid. One parent said: “This politics of envy from Labour doesn’t just upset private schools—it’s about the wider education system. Overcrowded state schools will bear the brunt. What sort of civilised society taxes education? Labour’s policies are a disaster and we are seeing it across the board.”
LABOUR’S DEFENCE VS GROWING CRITICISM
The Treasury claims the VAT policy will raise £1.8bn annually to support state education. A spokesperson said: “Ending tax breaks for private schools will help the 94% of children in state schools achieve and thrive.”
However, Neil O’Brien, Conservative shadow education minister, hit back, accusing Labour of an “education tax” that hurts teachers, pupils, and families across the board.
“Labour’s policy is hammering independent schools while state schools face chaos,” he said. “This isn’t just bad policy—it’s an attack on choice, opportunity, and quality in education.”
MORE TO COME?
With private schools reeling from the financial blow and more closures expected, Labour’s tax raid is quickly becoming a major flashpoint in the education debate. Critics argue the policy is short-sighted, putting teachers’ jobs, children’s education, and community institutions at risk.
The question remains: How many more schools will be forced to close before Labour rethinks its damaging education tax?
Main photo: For illustration purposes only. Image created by Grok.
With private schools beginning to close, Kier Starmer, without doubt, presents the greatest danger to education that has ever been witnessed in this country from a Prime Minister.
The ever-growing catalogue of his educational intentions, policies and proposed legislation are not the actions of a politician, but a clear personal agenda that has no place in a democratic country and a serving government. They may be disguised as legitimate fiscal and labour government national reform policies, but the reasoning behind them is clearly devoid of any intelligent governance. Which leads to a quite simple question; why is an apparently intelligent man implementing such blatant lunacy? This is quite simple: it is not lunacy that Kier Starmer is implementing, it is a complex multifaceted personal campaign of vengeance in order to reinstate the universally catastrophic failure that was the substandard comprehensive school system. The very system that Labour will never finally admit that failed and restricted many millions of people from many generations, and now Labour threatens to repeat that failure and destroy the only alternatives.
Let us look at the key characteristics of this prime minister:
An almost total denial to all, of any consultation and public or closed enquiry on any subject. Labour is an absolute ‘closed door’ government, and Kier Starmer will not tolerate any legitimate decent or criticism from any office or individual who can prove this of him. He is a totalitarian within his own government. He will not allow his party, apart from his loyal comrades in prime positions complicit in their own power, to present or discuss alternatives: he simply punishes and supresses any form of insurgence, threatening the removal of the whip or even expulsion from the party of any minister who dares to advise against his will. How can this totalitarian dictation within a government in a democracy be even remotely constitutionally legal, let alone be moral and beneficial to the country.
Private schools now have the greatest threat to their survival and future investment, and all because of what? Again, a simple answer to explain an ambivalent and hypocritical Prime minister: a pathological personal vengeance that is not an intelligent ideology or alternative. It should never be part of any democratic government’s machinations to destroy an independent education system that has been the backbone of Britain for centuries; that is blatant shameless hatred and spite.
Kier Starmer enjoyed education from Reigate Grammar School. Although, at the beginning of his time it was a state grammar school, it then became a private school. This had no impact on Kier Starmer, as he was awarded a coveted bursary to complete his time there. Whilst in opposition he made many references to his working class terraced house upbringing. This follows his path from a privileged place at a private school and an equally privileged journey to Cambridge: a dream of many a private school child let alone one from a humble background. And yet, his vat on schools is now seeing a reduction all over Britain, of private school bursaries for the poorest students, as private schools must now concentrate on the success of their fee paying students and their own threatened investment. Thus, what hypocrite would eat from high table, then remove the crumbs from the plates of his fellow working class families, denying them the same privileges that he wallowed in?
Kier Starmer is looking only to re-implement the basic failed standard curriculum of old, that stifles lateral thought with a depth of knowledge that links subjects and does not isolate them, and the extension of vocational & cultural intelligence, that was a key to the success of both private and state grammar schools for centuries. He is simply proposing a quick, simple and cheap standardised form of mass production education for all. Kier Starmer also astounds with his hypocrisy at his desire to ‘level-up’. What is he trying to level up to, when he clearly desires the failure and eventual extinction of the very private school system that preserved him from state educational mediocrity and elevated him to a selective exclusive prestigious university, which clearly was a reason he ascended to a high position in a legal profession where the ‘old school tie’ oft still rules?
This leads neatly to the next round of his confused ‘levelling-up’ policy: the removal of funding for Latin in state schools.
In many private schools, Latin is still a mandatory subject, and for very good reason. Considering that nearly 60% of the English language is formed from Latin, then it obviously follows that it gives a greater and richer understanding of how our language functions; it also aids to a greater understanding of swathes of classical literature and much of the country’s history that surrounds us all. Thus, does Kier Starmer really need to be educated as to the extent of Latin in every area of our culture and country, and especially in law where it is the second language, to which he is privileged to understand? Is he going to next insist that every school, council and public institution immediately convert their Latin mottos into English, so that the new non-Latin speaking state school students feel less embarrassed at their new standard of ‘levelling-up’? ‘pro tanto quid retribuamus’ we shall never hear them cry!
It is quite clear, that, for whatever personal reasons, Kier Starmer is pathological in his dislike of quality independent education: a firm indication of communist principles? This hypocrite is a potent danger to education that will impact this country for many generations to come, and see a gradual general downturn in our academic standing throughout the world. Do not make the mistake of underestimating the potential damage Kier Starmer may cause to this country. He desperately needs to be stopped and proven as a totalitarian, anti-democratic leader who is in contravention of this country’s fundamental constitution and prove that he is in contravention of the basic rights of children to receive the best state school education that taxes should provide for. We must also not forget that every private school parent pays those taxes, but does not use the state system, saving the country countless millions every year, and still he is taxing them further. Whether education is private or state, it should not be taxed. Quality education should be a right for every child in the land, and Kier Starmer has already begun to remove those rights. Perhaps this is an opportunity to question our very constitution concerning the rights of education for all, regardless of state or private provision: the removal of that choice should also be greatly feared.
Perhaps Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves would have the decency to visit any private school and speak to parents who have no choice but to remove their children from the very Alma Mater that is their life, and maybe offer a handkerchief to mop up the tears of total despair from those children whose lives they have shattered: an event that is unlikely, considering that Starmer and Reeves already consider 37-40,000 students pulled from private schools as simple acceptable collateral damage ‒ absolutely disgusting putrid language and attitude that is morally unconscionable.
His intentions need to be immediately publically questioned, legally proven for their legitimacy as policy and reform, and his and the government’s real agenda finally exposed for the personal vindictive poison that it clearly is. This is simply a prime minister that does not care about anything other than his own power and pure hatred for any form of intelligent and legitimate opposition, even from within. And just like Tony Blair, the only quote absent from Kier Starmer’s victory speech was; “(Now!) Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s.”