Private school headteacher BLASTS Labour's VAT raid - 'No engagement at all'

The party wants to introduce a charge VAT of 20 per cent and end business rate relief immediately if it wins the election.

It says the tax could raise £1.7billion to be pumped into state schools.

Pietrek told GB News: "I think it's incredibly ill thought through, I can't have any view other than the fact that I think is based on ideology rather than any genuine fiscal policy.

"I think it's being increasingly well documented that there will be a significant exodus of pupils, and families from the independent sector, and I think it will be difficult to know quite, how many that will be, the numbers seem seem to range. Really anything from 10 to 40 per cent.

"Not 40 per cent immediately, but over the next five years, I think, there will be families who will not be able to afford to stay and they'll just go straight away.

"There will be others who will just do everything they possibly can to stay. But we'll find it find it difficult to have a natural exit point."

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Appearing on the BBC's Question Time, Piers Morgan accused Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting of engaging in the "worst kind of politics of envy".

Reacting to this, Pietrek said: "I'd love to say that I disagree. But I can't. I think for all those people who are trying to shout about this and say 'it's the right thing to do' have a very skewed perception of what independent schools are really like for everybody.

"Everybody seems to think that most independent schools are like Eton and Harrow and Winchester. That's just not the case.

"People see how many prime ministers have come out of those schools, and therefore, they're envious of that. And they think that that's how you succeed, and it's not how you succeed."

When asked about what he wanted from the Labour Party, he said: "My great frustration with the Labour Party is there has been no engagement at all. There is just this blinked-ness from the Labour Party, they will not speak to any independent school as far as I can tell.

"And it's incredibly frustrating as we're not this sort of ivory tower that everyone seems to think we are. We're desperately trying to find ways where we can collaborate.

"One of the things that everybody talks about in education is the importance of being open and candid. and working with people to be able to get the right outcomes. The Labour Party do not reflect that. They've got a viewpoint, and they're not prepared to move it. I cannot see anybody benefiting."

GB News has approached the Labour Party for a comment.