Private schools to challenge Labour's planned 'vandalism'

Private schools in England are seeking legal advice on potential challenges to the Labour Party's proposal to integrate them into the public sector, plans that would see the assets of fee-paying schools "redistributed".

The party says it will "integrate all private schools into the state sector" by withdrawing their charitable status, ending tax exemptions, and drawing a line under public subsidies.

Labour says it will also attempt to bring about the end of private schools by mandating that no more than 7 percent of universities' student population can have attended fee-paying schools, removing their competitive edge by realigning them with state schools in terms of their effectiveness in getting students into top universities.

Michael Buchanan, executive director of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an association of the head teachers of 283 independent schools, told the Financial Times that attempts to take assets may represent seizure of private property.

Buchanan said the group intended to take legal advice on how schools might protect their assets from seizure, and on their position regarding charitable status and human rights legislation.

In a statement, the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference said: "The motion passed at the Labour Party conference in Brighton attacking independent education is based on myths, misinformation and misunderstandings. If implemented, it will be an act of unprecedented vandalism."

The Independent Schools Council said it was also seeking legal advice. Julie Robinson, the council's chief executive, said in a statement: "Abolition would represent an act of national self-harm … Labour's plan would breach the European Convention on Human Rights on the right to choose education."

Robinson said parents would be "rightly worried" about Labour's plans, and said the left-wing party was putting politics ahead of the interests of children.

"The move is an attack on the rights and freedoms of parents to make choices over the education of their children," she said.

The Independent newspaper said the aspiration to "integrate" public schools into the state sector is a major policy shift and would require additional government money, likely in the form of extra taxes, even if a future Labour government is able to wrest assets from the UK's public schools.

The headmaster of Eton College, Simon Henderson, said the plans make no financial sense and will not benefit children left behind by the education system. He said there was a battle on the way to ensure a future for private education.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Henderson said there was inequality in the education system and he supported Labour's ambitions to improve the lives of children across the country, but said "abolishing excellence" was not to the direction that should be taken.

The Eton head said: "I don't think that by abolishing some of the best schools in the world, by confiscating and redistributing their assets, that we are going to improve the life chances of young people who have been left behind by the education system."

Henderson said he instead advocated increased partnership between private and state schools.