Despite widespread media outrage surrounding the government’s move to hike tax on private schools, new polling shows as few as one in five (22 per cent) Brits actually oppose it.
Parents who send their children to private schools could face higher fees from this week as the government’s flagship VAT policy comes into force.
Labour scrapped the VAT exemption and business rates relief for private schools, forcing some academic institutions to offset the hike with raised fees for parents.
Others have entirely restructured, with thousands of children also estimated to have been displaced by the policy.
New polling commissioned by the Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) thinktank has found that 54 per cent of people back the tax hike, with just 22 per cent opposing it.
The poll also showed strong support for the idea of UK private schools being obliged to open a quarter of their places for free to local children, to improve social mixing.
A government source said: “This is yet more conclusive evidence of the overwhelming support for this Labour government’s policy of removing tax breaks from private schools to invest in the state sector.
“With every hysterical headline attacking our policy, the Tories and their backers in the rightwing press show the public just how out of touch they are.
“And by pledging to restore tax breaks to the privileged few at the expense of investment in state schools used by the many, the Conservatives show they have learned nothing from their humbling election defeat.”
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