Christopher King, chief executive of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS), has criticised Labour's proposed policies to strip private schools of charitable status and add VAT to fees, calling the portrayal of the sector 'truly toxic'. In a speech to the IAPS annual conference, he defended private schools as offering a 'premium product' with holistic education, contrasting them with state schools under former education secretary Michael Gove's reforms.
King accused critics of hypocrisy, noting that parents buying expensive homes near top state schools effectively select by postcode and house price. 'How can these people attack parents for paying for their children's education when they are doing exactly the same thing but via a different route?' he said. He also claimed private school classrooms are more ethnically diverse than state schools, a claim rejected by an anonymous state primary headteacher who said prep schools rarely offer bursaries.
Labour's new manifesto policies, backed at the party's conference, include removing charitable status, adding VAT to fees, restricting university access for private pupils, and redistributing endowments to the state sector. King argued that private schools survive by providing better individual development, with smaller classes and specialist teachers, funded by average annual fees of £13,000 for day pupils.
He contrasted the autonomy of private school heads with the 'shackles of government ministers' diktat' in state schools. However, the National Association of Head Teachers responded that all heads face restrictions, saying 'the headteacher's office comes equipped not just with a desk and chair but a straitjacket too'.
