Starmer’s spiteful war on private schools has betrayed military families

The military covenant with the brave men and women who protect this country is under huge strain. Army housing has been a disgrace for years, with very little done to improve it. And now an MoD review of what consequences the 20 per cent hike on school fees is going to have on Army families will add more misery.

Unless the VAT rise is addressed, it will put a vast number of potential recruits off joining the military. Boarding school discounts are the one allowance that compensates for Army life, as you know your children will be well-educated while you are away fighting the King’s enemies.

This is something I know from personal experience. I went to 4 schools in the UK, Germany and the Middle East before I went to boarding school at the age of seven. For the next 12 years I was at just 2 schools. In that time my parents moved 7 times and hence I would have gone to 11 schools for my education up to the age of 18.

This is not atypical. As a soldier myself, my children would have gone to 9 different schools rather than the two boarding schools they went to. This is not free education, we still spent virtually every spare penny we had to top up the school fees from the Army allowance. I would not be able to afford a 20 per cent increase today, as I expect will be the case for most military families today, if the Chancellor penalises service families in this way.

The military has been so denuded by the peace dividend that the Army is its smallest since the Battle of Waterloo. We would struggle to put 100 tanks and a brigade of infantry into the field to oppose the Russian hordes, which is a possibility if we do not enable Ukraine to prevail.

As Starmer gives the train drivers a whacking great pay rise but hammers the pensioners; is the Army next in line for cuts to enable new Labour to give to others? The Defence Review has just begun, and we all know that the military is in a perilous state after years of underfunding and wastage since the end of the Cold War. But even with war now in Ukraine and the chance that the British Army might have to fight in Europe again, the Prime Minister will only increase defence spending when conditions allow. If not now, then when?

Wars are won by bold action and lost by dithering. Perhaps the PM is trying to do too much at the moment, but he must realise that defence and security of Britain is his number one priority which currently seems well down the list.

The moral and financial abuse of Army families is a national disgrace. They cannot strike, they cannot withdraw their labour; the champagne socialists may look down on us, but it is us who do the fighting, so that they can be free to protest and complain. We come from every corner of these isles and every social strata.

The enemy knows we are not a soft touch, so Sir Keir, please do not treat us as such. Allow us a decent education for our children and decent housing for our families. Remember, while you are holding the coats, we will be doing your fighting.