By TCW

September 22, 2025

AS IF Labour’s Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson had not done enough to destroy Britain’s independent education sector, she now seems determined to finish it off altogether.

The Telegraph reports that she plans to charge private schools up to three times morefor Ofsted inspections than state schools. This will force private schools to absorb an extra £4.3million a year in costs, and risks exacerbating the wave of closures already sparked by the VAT raid and triggering a further exodus of teachers to Australia, as we reported this time last year.

Her move also risks further pushing up fees for parents already struggling to cope with the impact of Labour’s VAT raid and leaving more children in need of unavailable state school places.

The Telegraph further reports the bizarre logic of Phillipson’s allies who have insisted it was ‘frankly unfair that taxpayers who send their children to state schools were bankrolling the costs of private institutions’. As though these parents are not paying double for their children’s education and in fact bankrolling the state system by reducing the demand for more places!

Around half of the 2,500 independent schools in England rely on the state watchdog for inspections. State subsidies mean two-thirds of inspection costs are effectively discounted. Now the Education Secretary is expected announce this week that she is removing the subsidy entirely,meaning private schools will have to stump up the full cost.

Her plans have sparked more accusations that she is waging a class war, something that will play well with Labour’s far left MPs in her current quest to become deputy leader of the party.

You can read the full report here https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/20/bridget-phillipson-private-schools-charge-ofsted-inspection/