KIDS will be thicker with Labour in charge, the Tories warned last night in a blast at their private schools whack that risks swamping classrooms.
Rishi Sunak said Sir Keir Starmer would “wreck” the past 14 years of progress that has seen England rise up the international league tables.
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He claimed Labour’s decision to tax private schools would see “class sizes soar” with the nation’s pupils amid growing confusion over the policy.
The party’s education chief Bridget Phillipson told our Never Mind The Ballots TV show yesterday that the VAT raid on fees could start as early as this September.
She said: “What I would say is that this has been our policy for a very long time now, since it was first announced in 2021.
“So private schools have had ample notice as to the change that a Labour government would bring.”
Tory analysis reckons it would push an extra 40,000 children whose parents can not afford the higher fees into the state sector.
Labour insist the £1.5billion raised from the levy will fund 6,500 new teachers to plug staffing shortages.
But the Conservatives ramped up their criticism last night alongside an impassioned defence of their handling of education since 2010.
They last night highlighted that 90 per cent of schools are either good or outstanding compared with 68 per cent since they came to power.
Mr Sunak said: “Education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet to improve our children’s life chances.
“That’s why since 2010 we have focused relentlessly on driving up school standards – with English children now the best readers in the western world thanks to the reforms we Conservatives have put in place.
“That’s the choice at this election between the Conservatives with a strong track record and a plan to go further, and Labour who have let children down in Labour-run Wales and whose schools tax would see class sizes soar.”
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