Ethnic minority children risk being forced out of private schools under Labour VAT raid, says black author

Ethnic minority children risk being forced out of private schools under the Government’s VAT plans, a best-selling black author has claimed.

Candice Brathwaite warned Sir Keir Starmer that he risks “widening the gap” through the tax raid, which is set to come into force on January 1 next year.

The author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother, who sends her daughter to private school, said many ethnic minority parents have “three jobs apiece to make that education happen – just to make their generational landscape a bit more socially mobile”.

Speaking on the BBC’s Headliners podcast, she said the 20 per cent tax would likely mean switching her daughter to a state school – warning that many others could follow suit.

“[The VAT] is now the thing that could possibly make us decide that we can’t do this anymore,” she said.

“I would say to [Sir Keir]: ‘Really have a think about actually how you could be widening the gap.’ I appreciate you’re extremely privileged to go to private school at all but kids of colour? Give me a break. They hardly touch the start line, you know.

“And for someone like me who is not pulling from that magical rainbow pot of gold it is the thin line… Why take that from people who are already trying really hard?”

Four in 10 private school pupils are from a minority ethnic background, according to the latest annual survey by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

The figure has risen over the past 15 years, up from 23 per cent in 2009 –  reflecting the increasing diversity of the overall UK school population.

There are also wide regional disparities, with children from minority ethnic backgrounds making up more than 60 per cent of pupils at ISC schools in London last year.

Religious groups have warned the Government’s VAT plans could unfairly impact pupils at private faith schools, whose needs cannot be as readily met in the state sector.

Raisel Freedman, assistant director at the Partnership for Jewish Schools (Pajes), said the policy could “decimate” many Jewish schools and “force [Jewish] parents with more than a couple of children onto the poverty line”.

Of the 140 Jewish schools across the UK, 60 per cent hold independent status, equating to around 22,000 students.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, defended the VAT policy earlier this week. Speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, she said it was “the fair choice, the responsible choice, the Labour choice to support the 94 per cent of our children in our state schools”.

A Government spokesman said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year, such as recruiting 6,500 new teachers.”