Muslim family among those taking legal action against Labour's private school tax policy

UK will impose the sales tax on fees from January as part of plans to raise money for the state school sector

Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to reception class children at a primary school in Orpington, near London. Getty Images

A Muslim family is among those taking part in a legal challenge which asserts that Labour’s decision to impose VAT on independent school fees is discriminatory. The UK government will impose the sales tax on fees from January as part of plans to raise money for the state school sector.

Six families backed by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) have filed a judicial claim in the High Court, saying the impact of the policy is “already being felt far and wide”. The six case studies include families of children with special educational needs or disabilities (Send), a vulnerable girl in a single-sex school, Jewish and Muslim families, and foreign nationals in bilingual schools.

The challenge argues that children with Send are “facing real uncertainty”; families of vulnerable girls in single-sex schools are confronting “painful choices”; minority Jewish and Muslim families “fear they cannot provide an education for their children that respects their faith”; and foreign nationals following the curriculum of their home country have few alternatives, if any.

Julie Robinson, chief executive of ISC, an umbrella organisation representing more than 1,400 schools, said the diversity within independent schools has been ignored by policymakers.

“As a result of the government’s blanket approach, the impact is likely to be felt immediately by many families and children, many of whom have chosen an independent school for reasons including faith ... dual-language learning or single-sex education,” she said. “It is to protect the rights of these families, who are having their choice removed from them by this policy, that we are seeking a declaration of incompatibility.”

The ISC is also concerned about the wider impact of the policy across independent education, she added. Sophie Kemp, partner and head of public law at Kingsley Napley, who is representing the claimants, said the government is “rushing” the policy through. The firm wants the claim to be heard on an expedited basis.

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“The families are asking for careful and swift scrutiny of the impact of VAT on their lives which they feel has been ignored by the government as it seeks to rush its policy through,” she said. They argue that the introduction of VAT impedes access to education at independent schools and is incompatible with the right to education guaranteed by article two of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights.

They also claim that the policy infringes Article 14 of the Convention because it causes unnecessary and discriminatory harm to certain categories of children. The families seek a declaration of incompatibility under section four of the Human Rights Act on the basis that the amendments to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 are incompatible with ECHR rights.

The ISC said it is seeking to work with the government to help it understand the “true impact” of VAT on the education sector, especially on small, low-fee faith schools and on Send provision for young people who need support but who do not have an Education, Health and Care Plan.