Since Labour introduced VAT on private school fees in January 2025, more than 100 of them have closed, making Britain’s best state schools more in demand than ever before.
The 20 per cent cost hike means many parents have turned their backs on independent schooling, with children switching to state education.
This has piled pressure on long-established institutions. Among the private schools to have closed are the century-old Moorlands School in Leeds – which directly blamed Labour’s tax raid – and Queen Margaret’s School for Girls, near York. More recently, Thetford Grammar School, one of the oldest schools in Britain, rang the school bell for the
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