News
Making Life Difficult For OTHER Parents
— 3 mins read
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh defends the private school tax as her three children go private
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has defended Labour's 20% VAT on private school fees while sending her own three children to private schools.
The Peckham MP, tipped by some in the media as a possible future Labour leader, was interviewed by Lewis Goodall on the News Agents podcast. Asked whether paying for her children's education would damage her political ambitions, she called the tax 'the right policy' and described the backlash against it as 'really bizarre'.
'The government is not going to cross-subsidise parents sending their children to independent schools', she said, in remarks reported by the Evening Standard.
She went on to defend parental choice. 'I've purposefully not brought my kids into politics. If the question you're asking me is do I believe that parents should have a choice to send their kids to independent school? I do. Parents can do that for a whole host of reasons. Because it's a good school, because their kids have special educational needs, because they want schools that are geared towards sports and arts. That is OK.'
The subsidy claim does not add up
A tax exemption is not a subsidy. Parents who pay school fees have already paid tax towards state schools their children do not use. Removing the exemption takes roughly £1.5bn a year more from those families, according to Commons Library figures. Describing that as the end of a subsidy assumes the money belonged to the government in the first place. It did not. It belonged to the parents who earned it.
What the tax has done to schools
The 20% VAT charge took effect on 1 January 2025 under Keir Starmer's government. The Independent Schools Council reported more than 100 closures, including mergers, by early 2026. The Telegraph reported two schools shutting in a single week in August, with the tax cited as a factor.
The government is not going to cross-subsidise parents sending their children to independent schools.
Pupil numbers in independent schools have fallen by between 22,000 and 33,000, according to Department for Education and ISC figures. Schools have also faced higher National Insurance bills and the loss of business rates relief, so not every closure is down to VAT alone. The High Court and Court of Appeal have upheld the policy against legal challenge.
Not the first Labour figure to face the question
Diane Abbott sent her son to a private school while serving as a Labour MP, a matter of public record that drew similar scrutiny at the time. Fahnbulleh was herself privately educated, at Beechwood School in Tunbridge Wells. Her husband works in the City and founded a hedge fund.
Fahnbulleh was born in Liberia and came to Britain as a child when her family fled the country's dictatorship. She studied at Oxford and the LSE, ran the New Economics Foundation think tank, and was elected MP for Peckham in 2024. Prime Minister Andy Burnham promoted her to Energy Secretary in July 2026 after Keir Starmer stood down.
Fahnbulleh said she does not believe her choice precludes her 'or anyone else who holds that belief from being part of the Labour team or the Labour family'. The tax remains in force, and speculation about her leadership prospects continues.
