Best Schools - Private schools threaten to sue Labour over plans to abolish them

Private schools are threatening to sue Labour over their abolition plans, as the Prime Minister attacked the “unbelievable hypocrisy" of the policy which would cost the taxpayer £7 billion to implement.

Barnaby Lenon, chair of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said that fee-paying institutions would “push back in the courts” against any policies aimed at seizing their property and forcing their pupils into neighbouring state schools.

Axing private schools would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to choose education as well as Article 26 of the United Nations on the right to education, the ISC argues.

A snap poll by YouGov found that half of the public reject Labour’s private school pledge, with just over a fifth (22 per cent) supporting it.

Abolishing private schools was the most unpopular with London voters, 57 per cent of whom oppose a ban, and most popular with Scottish voters where 46 per cent were in favour.

Mr Lenon said the ISC, an umbrella body which represents the majority of British private schools, would “wait and see” before launching any kind of legal action.

“These things have got to get on their manifesto. Secondly they have to get elected. Thirdly they have to outline what it is they are proposing in some detail,” he said.

Independent schools directly save the taxpayer £3.5 billion a year by excluding pupils from public education spending, and also generate an additional £3.5 billion in tax revenue, it says.

Head of Eton hits back at Labour plans to abolish private schools

The headmaster of Eton College has hit back at Labour’s plans to abolish private schools, saying they make no financial sense and will not benefit children left behind by the education system.

In an interview with the Guardian, Simon Henderson, who became head of the world-famous private school four years ago, acknowledged the public mood had shifted and a battle lay ahead for the future of private education.

He said Eton, which was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, would make its case for survival as a “positive force for good” in the education system.

Henderson was speaking after delegates at the Labour party conference voted in favour of a radical set of policies that would abolish private schools by removing their charitable status and redistributing their endowments, investments and properties to the state sector. Labour also wants to limit the number of privately educated students at university.

The Eton head agreed there was inequality in the education system and supported Labour’s ambitions to improve the lives of children across the country, but said “abolishing excellence” was not to the way to achieve those aims.

“I don’t think that by abolishing some of the best schools in the world, by confiscating and redistributing their assets, that we are going to improve the life chances of young people who have been left behind by the education system.” He advocated, instead, increased partnership between private and state schools.

Henderson said independent schools saved the state school system, and therefore taxpayers, £3.5bn a year. He said they contribute £13.7bn to the economy, generate £4.1bn in annual tax revenues and support about 303,000 jobs.

“More fundamentally than that, I don’t think it will work,” he continued. “I don’t think it will improve equality within the education system.”