Despite protestations from every quarter, Sir Keir Starmer will press on with his malicious plan to slap VAT on private school fees. I can only assume he’s doing this because he believes an excellent education, stemming from hundreds of years of tradition, is entirely undesirable.

Look, there’s no question about it. Our private schools are the cat’s pyjamas. They attract discerning parents from all over the planet, even from New York, that bastion of elitism, where bankers and lawyers duke it out to hire Juilliard grads to teach their four- year-olds the violin.

Recently, I met a financier from that city. So enamoured was he of London schools that he upped sticks and transferred his entire family. The spectre of an extra tax is as nothing to him. Ironically, many British families are now moving out of the UK so that they can send their offspring to private schools in other countries. Changing places, indeed.

Perhaps it is time to shelve that spanking new science block and use the wonga to keep fees affordable

The rest of the world marvels at the brilliance of our best schools: so why are our own leaders blind to it? Why does Starmer want to make it harder to choose a decent education? Aside from anything else, he’s way out of whack with public opinion.

A report this year by Civitas shows that 72 per cent of respondents believed that parents are right to use their own money to give their children the best possible........

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