Labour to add VAT to private school fees within first year if elected
Labour will add VAT to private school fees within its first year of government if it wins the next general election.
The party said it does not plan to “phase in” the change over several academic years if it enters Downing Street.
Instead, it is understood it will end the controversial tax breaks enjoyed by independent schools as soon as it possibly can.
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According to the i paper, which first reported on the story, this means private school fees could be hit with a 20% increase as soon as the first academic year after the election – which is due to take place before the end of next year.
Labour estimates this could raise £1.7bn to invest in state schools.
Party chair Anneliese Dodds told Sky News: “At the moment, 90% of kids go to schools that are not private. We need to be gathering the money from somewhere in order to (raise standards). We’ve been really upfront about this.”
She added: “We need to see that change and what Labour will never do is have an unfunded policy. We had that with Liz Truss. We saw the impact on our economy.”
Asked if it was fair to parents who “scrimp and save” to send their children to private school, Ms Dodds insisted it would not lead to a drop in attendance.
She said: “We’ve actually seen over the last 20 years, the fees that private schools charge going up pretty much year on year, often above inflation.
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Anneliese Dodds is asked about the party’s VAT plans for private schools
“There’s not been any drop-off in the number of students and pupils attending those schools. In fact, the number of pupils at those schools has gone up over time.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has previously pledged that a government led by him would strip private schools of their charitable status, which makes them eligible for tax relief and business rate discounts.
Last year he used the policy to launch a personal attack on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who attended the £49,000-a -year Winchester College.
Many Conservatives are opposed to the plan, arguing it will force more parents to send their children to state schools, piling extra pressure on the system.
Teachers within the independent sector have also warned it is likely to have a disproportionate impact on the smaller and medium sized private schools compared to the most prestigious ones like Winchester and Eton.
Julie Robinson, the chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, told the i: “We would urge Labour to take note of the real concerns that many across education have raised, particularly the effect their policy would have on children in smaller schools, in faith schools, children on bursaries, and pupils with special educational needs.”
Warnings of a mass exodus were dismissed in a report by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) in July, which said the policy would have “a relatively limited effect” on pupil numbers.
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The report also said the gap between private school fees and state school spending per pupil has more than doubled since 2010, when it was about 40% or £3,500.
It said in 2022/2023, the average private school fees across the UK were £15,200. The report said this is £7,200 or nearly 90% higher than state school spending per pupil.
A Labour Party spokesperson said it makes “no apology for relentless focus on how to drive high and rising standards in our state schools”.
“Because we are the party of fair taxes, we will end the unjustifiable tax break afforded to private schools and fund recruitment of over 6,500 more teachers and put access to mental health counselling in every school.”
Tulip Siddiq has told Sky News her “lawyers are ready” to handle any formal questions about allegations she is involved in corruption in Bangladesh.
Asked whether she regrets apparent links with the Bangladeshi Awami League political party, Ms Siddiq said “why don’t you look at my legal letter and see if I have any questions to answer… [the Bangladeshi authorities] have not once contacted me and I’m waiting to hear from them”.
The London MP resigned as a Treasury minister in January after being named in several corruption inquiries in Bangladesh.
In her first public comments since leaving government, Ms Siddiq said “there’s been allegations for months on end and no one has contacted me”.
Last month, the interim leader of Bangladesh told Sky News the MP had “wealth left behind” in the country “and should be made responsible”.
Lawyers acting for Ms Siddiq wrote to the Bangladeshi Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) several weeks ago saying the allegations were “false and vexatious”.
The letter said the ACC must put questions to Ms Siddiq “by no later than 25 March 2025” or “we shall presume that there are no legitimate questions to answer”.
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Staff from the NCA visited Bangladesh as part of initial work to support the interim government in the country.
In a post online today, the former minister said the deadline had expired and the authorities had not replied.
Sky News has approached the Bangladeshi government for comment.
The allegations against Ms Siddiq are focused on links to her aunt Sheikh Hasina – who served as the prime minister of Bangladesh for 20 years.
Ms Hasina was forced to flee the country in August following weeks of deadly protests.
She is accused of becoming an autocrat, with politically-motivated arrests, extra-judicial killings and other abuses allegedly happening on her watch. Hasina claims it’s all a political witch hunt.
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Ms Siddiq was found to have lived in several London properties that had links back to the Awami League political party that her aunt still leads.
She referred herself to the prime minister’s standards adviser Sir Laurie Magnus who said he had “not identified evidence of improprieties” but added it was “regrettable” Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Ms Siddiq said continuing in her role would be “a distraction” for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX reportedly hired former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to advise it over the federal probe that resulted in the firm pleading guilty to several violations and agreeing to pay $505 million in fines and penalties.
Cuomo, a New York-registered attorney, advised OKX on legal issues stemming from the probe sometime after August 2021 when he resigned as New York overnor, Bloomberg reported on April 2, citing people familiar with the matter.
“He spoke with company executives regularly and counseled them on how to respond to the criminal investigation,” Bloomberg said.
The Seychelles-based firm pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in violation of US Anti-Money Laundering laws on Feb. 24 and agreed to pay $84 million worth of penalties while forfeiting $421 million worth of fees earned from mostly institutional clients.
The breaches occurred from 2018 to 2024 despite OKX having an official policy preventing US persons from transacting on its crypto exchange since 2017, the Department of Justice noted at the time.
A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, told Bloomberg that Cuomo has been providing private legal services representing individuals and corporations on a variety of matters since resigning as New York governor.
“He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency and routinely recommends former colleagues for positions,” Azzopardi added.
OKX reportedly wasn’t willing to comment on its relationships with outside firms.
Cuomo also influenced OKX to make executive appointments: Bloomberg
Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also advised OKX to appoint his friend US Attorney Linda Lacewell to OKX’s board of directors, Bloomberg said.
Lacewell, a former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, was added to the board in 2024 and was named OKX’s new chief legal officer on April 1, according to a recent company statement.
Source: Linda Lacewell
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After the investigation concluded, OKX said it would seek out a compliance consultant to remedy the issues stemming from the federal probe and bolster its regulatory compliance program.
“Our vision is to make OKX the gold standard of global compliance at scale across different markets and their respective regulatory bodies,” OKX CEO Star Xu said in a Feb. 24 X post.
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United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries.
The reciprocal levies on will be approximately half of what trading partners charge for US imports, Trump said. For example, China currently has a tariff of 67% on US imports, so US reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods will be 34%. Trump also announced a standard 25% tariff on all automobile imports.
Trump told the media that tariffs would return the country to economic prosperity seen in previous centuries:
“From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation. The United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been. So wealthy, in fact, that in the 1880s, they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting.”
“Then, in 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying,” Trump said.
Full breakdown of reciprocal tariffs by country. Source: Cointelegraph
Trump presented the tariffs through the lens of economic protectionism and hinted at returning to the economic policies of the 19th century by using them to replace the income tax.
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Trump proposes eliminating federal income tax and replacing it with tariff revenue
Trump proposed the idea of abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and funding the federal government exclusively through trade tariffs while still on the campaign trail in October 2024.
According to accounting automation company Dancing Numbers, Trump’s plan could save each American taxpayer $134,809-$325,561 in taxes throughout their lives.
US President Donald Trump addresses the media about reciprocal trade tariffs at the April 2 press event. Source: Fox 4 Dallas
The higher range of the tax savings estimate will only occur if other wage-based taxes are eliminated at the state and municipal levels.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who assumed office in February, also voiced support for replacing the IRS with the “External Revenue Service.”
Lutnick said that the US government cannot balance a budget yet consistently demands more from its citizens every year. Tariffs will also protect American workers and strengthen the US economy, he said.
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