00:00At the beginning, Labour said that you were putting VAT on private school fees to fund
00:04teachers. We then had a series of tweets from Keir Starmer suggesting that that money is
00:11actually funding affordable housing. What is the money that the VAT hike has produced going on?
00:18Is it going on teachers or is it going on loads of other Labour policies?
00:21So the amount of money that will be raised by the end of the Parliament is around £1.8 billion
00:26in terms of the VAT on private schools. Through the spending review and actually through the
00:32budget, we're already investing more beyond that. When you raise tax, of course, that money then goes
00:37into the Treasury and decisions are taken about how the money is spent. But through the spending
00:41review, we're investing now more in schools, in colleges, also in rebuilding more schools and
00:46alongside that, expanding free school meals eligibility to more children, the biggest expansion
00:51in a generation, which actually far outstrips anything we're going to raise through private
00:55school fees. But I do think it was the right decision to raise money to reinvest in state
01:00education. That is precisely what we're doing alongside investing more, for example, in social
01:05and affordable housing. These are all decisions that have been taken through the spending review
01:09and demonstrate our determination to build a better and fairer country.
01:13OK, but then you say better and fairer. The VAT on private school fees has adversely affected
01:19private school pupils, hasn't it? We've now got school closures up 67 percent. Eighteen private
01:26schools closed in 2024. Today, as of today, it's 31. And that's apparently affected twice as many
01:34SEN, special needs children. So was it worth it to see schools closed down as Education Secretary?
01:41So the number of private schools now is higher than it was last year. So we've actually got more private
01:46schools than last year. That's the figures that we have. What I would say, I mean, we discuss...
01:50How can we have more than last year if 31 have closed? How many have opened?
01:53There's more opening.
01:54How many have opened in comparison to 31 closing?
01:57I'd need to give, I'd need to look at the exact number, but I know that from the numbers I've reviewed,
02:01the numbers of private schools are higher now than they were last year.
02:04But in general, are you happy with schools closing?
02:08Private schools open and close all the time. That's what's happened over decades. That's not a new phenomenon.
02:12What I'm determined to do is to make sure that we do invest more in state education. Now,
02:17I'm always happy to answer any questions that you have on this or any other topic, and I'll answer
02:22them as directly as I can. But I do have to say, we've got around this quite a few times in the past
02:26when I've been on your show. Good to be with you again today. But actually, the vast majority of the
02:31people watching this will be sending their kids to state schools. And what they want to know is how
02:36we're improving standards in our state schools and delivering more teachers as we are into our state schools.
02:40For clarification, I've got a foot in both camps because I send a child to state school and I send
02:45a child, two children to private school. So I can see it from both sides of the coin. And the problem
02:50with people who have got their children in state schools, particularly in oversubscribed areas like
02:54mine, I live in Hertfordshire, is that they are affected because if private school children can't
02:59afford to go to their schools, they then apply to go to state schools. The state schools are then
03:04oversubscribed. So it does have an impact. There has been an exodus of private school children,
03:10so it is relevant to the state sector. But just in general, as an education secretary,
03:14how can you be happy with a situation where 31 schools have been closed down and presumably
03:20teachers have lost their jobs? You can't be happy with that scenario.
03:24Private schools are private businesses. They make decisions about their funding model,
03:27about who they appeal to. But actually, as I say, we've got more private schools this year than we
03:31did last. What I'd also add, when you talk about movement of students between different parts of the
03:36sector. On the secondary school offer day this year, when parents are offered their place at a
03:41secondary school, we actually saw an increase in the number of first choice offers. So the kind of
03:46the scaremongering, the talk that we apparently had about this would be have a terrible and devastating
03:50effect, I'm afraid just isn't coming to pass.
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