The only thing that really animates Rishi Sunak, the only topic he seems to get really passionate about, is his defence of private schools.
The only thing that really animates Rishi Sunak, the only topic he seems to get really passionate about, is his defence of private schools.
The Prime Minister, ever keen to portray himself as a man of the people, gets incredibly touchy when you bring up the issue of private schools, given the fact that he went to Winchester College, where current fees are at £49,152 per annum for boarding pupils, and that’s before uniform, kit and all the extras parents pay.
Sunak told an audience during a one-hour Q&A session on GB News that Keir Starmer was ‘attacking private schools’ and that he was ‘attacking people like my parents. Middle income families who want nothing but a great education for their kids’.
Except the Labour leader hasn’t attacked private schools. All he’s proposed is charging private schools 20% VAT, as well as ending business rate relief, to raise about £1.7bn, if it wins the next election. Private schools after all are not charities.
Yet Sunak, like others, wish to portray criticism of private schools as a personal attack. It’s not a personal attack to want to tackle the unfair privileges and advantages of institutions that perpetuate inequalities for generations to come.
GB News shared a clip of Sunak with the following text: “Our kids are the best readers in the western world now. When Keir Starmer attacks private schools, I told him he’s attacking people like my parents. Middle income families who want nothing but a great education for their kids”.
Otto English wrote in response: “The fees at Rishi Sunak’s former school are a whopping £49,152 per annum for boarding pupils. That’s before uniform, kit and all the extras parents pay.
“The median average salary for full-time workers in the UK is £33,000 . “Middle income families” cannot afford these schools.”
Also, it’s worth pointing out to Sunak that being unable to afford private education, doesn’t mean you don’t want the best for your children.
As for the ‘my parents worked hard to send me to private school’, lots of people work hard. It’s just a shame some have a rather elitist view of what constitutes hard work.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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