Red walls and blue walls, remainers and leavers, Bennites and Gaitskellites, these things come and go but one constant of British politics endures: dividing lines.
George Osborne, formerly of this parish, repeatedly deployed them to make Eds Miliband and Balls squirm. Gordon Brown loved them more than prudence (1994-2002-ish) and almost as much as the idea of being prime minister (1951-2007).
Generally speaking, it is governments that get to set dividing lines, rather than the opposition. This is for the obvious reason that they are in charge: of the parliamentary order paper and the direction of economic policy, which makes their view more interesting to the media and relevant to the public.
The ideal dividing line is an issue that is broadly popular, both within the party and across the country, but splits the other side. Osborne’s go-to was benefit cuts.
But today at Prime Minister’s Questions it was the Leader of the Opposition’s chance to set one of his choosing. Keir Starmer wants abolish charitable status for independent schools, which Labour says would raise £1.7bn to be invested in more teachers at state schools. What makes this dividing line interesting is that both sides seem to think it favours them. One of them is wrong.
For Labour, the benefit is clear. 93% of students do not attend private schools. At the same time, the education budget has taken a beating in the last decade. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, school spending per pupil in England fell by 9% in real terms between 2010 and 2020, a squeeze “effectively without precedent in post-war UK history”.
Removing charitable status is also popular (see polling) and at the same time sends a clear signal of Labour’s priorities, even if you can’t list a single other of its education pledges.
As for the Conservatives, the thinking goes that this policy, even if widely supported, may still backfire on Labour. This is because, while removing charitable status from independent schools may poll well in isolation, it could also be the sort of ‘class war’ thing that puts people off Labour. Furthermore, the Tories remember their first two terms in opposition from 1997 to 2005, when the party often had individual policies that were popular, for example on immigration, but their cumulative effect was to put voters off.
The danger with this analysis is that, while Keir Starmer isn’t Tony Blair, in temperament or popularity (at least as leader of the opposition), 2022 isn’t 1995. Back then, private schools were expensive, but still filled with the children of well-paid professionals. But fees have trebled in real terms since 1980. And despite rising incomes, the average cost for one child has risen from 20% to 50% of median income.
Rishi Sunak’s defence – that private school education is about aspiration – risks falling flat. Partly for the reasons above but also, why not aspire to make state schools so good that there’s no need for parents to pay twice?
To quote one veteran politician, tax breaks for private schools:
“[A]llows the wealthiest in this country, indeed the very wealthiest in the globe, to buy a prestige service that secures their children a permanent positional edge in society at an effective 20 per cent discount. How can this be justified?”
Not Keir Starmer, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson or even John McDonnell. It was Michael Gove.
In the comment pages, Defence Editor Robert Fox warns that the war in Ukraine is entering a grotesquely brutal winter phase. While Homes & Property Editor Prudence Ivey wades in on the claims between schoolgirls who enjoy noisy sports and the complaints of those who want a lie-in, and concludes the planning system needs to get better at compromise.
Finally, you don’t have to be Bear Grylls and name your alarm clock ‘Opportunity’ (yuck), but here are eight ways to make getting up in the cold, dark mornings more bearable.
