Private schools educate Britain's elite, and now they will be taxed

A small primary school in Oxford has trained four world-famous actors: Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hollander, Jack Davenport and Emma Watson. The school is private, which means parents usually pay a term fee towards their children's tuition.

In Britain, about six percent of the country's students go to private schools – but according to studies, they are overrepresented among world-famous parliamentarians, journalists and cultural workers, as well as among students at the country's top universities.

Critical tax

Now the new Labour government wants to impose a 20 per cent VAT on private school fees across the country to pay for more state school teachers. But the tax is being roundly criticised before it has even had time to be imposed.

– Famous schools such as Eton, Harrow and Winchester will not be affected, as their student base comes from well-off families and the fee hikes do not matter to them, says Maxwell Marlow, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, a British neoliberal think tank.

Instead, he believes the tax will hit parents who are on the brink of being able to pay for private school for their children.

– What will happen is that these children will be expelled from private schools and will have to start in public schools where the student population will grow and thus cost more tax money. And he says the VAT pays for itself.

Overrepresentation in Parliament

Rebecca Montacute, head of research at the Sutton Trust charity, says private and state schools differ greatly in terms of resources.

– She says private schools typically have smaller classes, more teachers per student, facilities for sports and debate teams, and prepare their students differently than public schools for higher education.

This explains the over-representation of former private school pupils, for example, in the British Parliament.

The proportion of MPs with special education has fallen somewhat since the change of power, but it is still not proportionate to the population. According to our calculations, it will take 20 years at the current rate for Parliament to reflect the country, says Rebecca Montacute.