Starmer flounders on phone-in over private schools and Corbyn

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.