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Labour has confirmed it will not strip charitable status from UK private schools if it comes to power, as it seeks to draw a line under confusion about its proposals on independent education.
Senior members of the party have repeatedly referred to taking away independent schools’ status as charities and the benefits that come with that, saying such a move will allow them to charge these institutions value added tax and business rates and bring in about £1.7bn in tax revenues.
Late last year, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on the government to remove schools’ charitable status. And at a speech over the summer he said of his party’s policy: “When I say we are going to pay for kids to catch up at school, I also say it’ll be funded by removing private schools’ charitable status.”
Labour party officials now say they would be able to enforce the same tax obligations they had originally set out by simply mandating that private schools pay VAT and business rates. This would mean not having to go through the onerous process of changing the law to take away their charitable status.
Such a position, first reported in the i newspaper, would draw an end to confusion about exactly how a Labour government intended to impose certain tax liabilities on private schools.
One party official said they had been advised by lawyers that it would be possible to impose the taxes in question without removing charitable status.
A spokesperson for the party said: “Our policy remains. We will remove the unfair tax breaks that private schools benefit from, to fund desperately needed teachers and mental-health counselling in every secondary school.
“This doesn’t require removing charitable status,” they added.
Some independent schools are likely to celebrate the softening of Labour’s position, given that charities also enjoy tax exemptions on donations and gifts as well as capital gains tax. They would now be able to retain these in the event of a Labour election win.
But a senior figure in the private school sector told the Financial Times that it had been clear in private conversations with Labour that it had never been the intention for charitable status to be removed.
Luke Sibieta, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, who carried out an influential study on the likely impact of the Labour policy, said it was not “terribly surprising” to see the focus on removing exemptions for VAT and business rates.
“This could be done quickly and they are the most valuable tax reliefs,” he said. “Removing charitable tax status would be a long and complicated process, which would be unlikely to raise much extra tax revenues.”
People close to the party claim it was always Labour’s position that it was only targeting VAT and business rates, for which “charitable status” was used as a shorthand.
Labour’s education mission document sets out that it “will levy VAT on private schools and end their business rates exemption” and makes no mention of charitable status.
However, repeated comments by senior members of the party — including shadow education minister Bridget Phillipson — have created confusion.
