With only 16 days to go until the election – and today being the last day you can register to vote – election campaigning is heating up and political plans are coming under ever more scrutiny. This morning Sir Keir Starmer appeared on LBC to take questions from the public on Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledges – but it wasn’t all plain sailing.
On Labour’s plans to add VAT onto private school fees, Michelle, a headteacher of a specialist school, phoned in to ask about her pupils, all of whom have diagnosed special educational needs. She told Sir Keir:
30 per cent don’t have an educational healthcare plan to exempt them from the VAT charge and would be forced into the state sector where we know that their needs cannot be met. To note, these families send their children to my school out of necessity for their child. Has Sir Keir fully thought this policy through and does he know what the full impact of these plans could be on these vulnerable children and indeed their families, who have already been through a traumatic time simply fighting for what their child needs?
But Starmer looked rather lost during his attempts to reassure Michelle. First he waffled about teacher recruitment to state schools, going down a Sunak-esque rabbit hole on mathematics before re-explaining that removing ‘VAT breaks’ on private schools will pay for more teachers. And when Sir Keir eventually got round to actually addressing Michelle’s question, his answer effectively repeated her words back to her. Starmer confirmed that unless children with special educational needs had an education, health and care (EHC) plan they would not, in fact, be exempt from Labour’s additional VAT charges.
Presenter Nick Ferrari waded in with some handy stats for Sir Keir:
The number of pupils receiving EHC at SEND [special educational needs and disabilities schools]: 7,600 pupils at private schools get SEND support with EHC. 103,000 do not, Sir Keir. That 7,600 will be catered for. 103,000 will not.
‘Where there is a plan in place, we will put the exemption in place,’ a squirming Starmer replied. ‘Where there isn’t a plan, then that exemption doesn’t apply.’
Oo er. Talk about standing for the few, not the many…
Watch the clip here:
And on the theme of not answering questions, Starmer managed to avoid giving his thoughts on his party’s previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Quizzed bluntly on Jezza by a caller, Sir Keir was asked to respond ‘without the waffle’: ‘Just give me a simple yes or no answer. Had Labour won the election in ’17 or ’19, would you be happy to serve in the Cabinet under Prime Minister Corbyn?’
Starmer was so desperate to avoid giving a straight reply he refused to answer a whole, er, eight times. So much for ‘the values of honesty, decency and high standards in public life‘ being the ‘cornerstones of the Labour Party’, eh?
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