Labour is predicted to win a record majority on Thursday and sweep up seats across the capital, including some the party has never won before.
But in London’s wealthiest borough voters have expressed concern about the party’s policy to add 20 per cent tax to private school fees.
Labour has pledged to end the VAT exemption to raise an estimated £1.6billion that it says will be used to hire 6,500 teachers in the state sector.
It is a plan that across the country will hit the pockets of very few voters - just seven per cent of children aged five to 15 in Britain attend a fee paying school.
But in the two constituencies in Kensington and Chelsea an estimated half of parents put their offspring in private education.
London Minister Greg Hands, who is fighting to be re-elected Tory MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said Labour’s plan was based on “the politics of envy” and would “pull the rug from under good independent schools”.
He argued it will force more children into state schools that are at capacity.
Katherine Lim, from Fulham, said she was hoping to get a scholarship at an independent school for her three-year-old son, Theo, but is worried these will no longer be available.
She said: “Labour seem to think these kids are from rich families already and it won’t matter, and some of them might be, but a lot of these parents are just getting by. We just want what is best for our children.
“The schools around here are already so competitive and getting a place is like a lottery. I’m applying for reception, for Theo to start in September 2025, and am considering both private and state schools, depending on whether we can get a bursary.
“But with the VAT on top, will these schools have bursaries and scholarships to give? ”
Ms Lim, who works as a private tutor and writer, added: “I am a single mum and the fees are up to £25,000. If the 20 per cent is added to that and there is no bursaries, then that is out of the reach of most normal working middle class people. It will force more children into the state schools, making them more competitive to get into.
“I don’t think Labour has thought this through.”
But El Taylor, whose daughter is at an academy in the borough, said parents who may find they cannot afford to send their child to private school should get involved in making their local state school better.
“I think people need to realise how privileged they are,” she said.
“Some people can’t afford their rent or to put food on the table.
“We’re lucky that state schools here are good. It is a massive privilege for some to have a few pounds spare each month, let alone a few thousands to pay for a private education.
“If this money that’s raised goes into state schools that can only be a good thing.”
Tory cabinet minister Chris Heaton-Harris joined activists campaigning in Chelsea last week.
He told the Standard: “Parents who send their kids to independent schools, I'm a bit bemused that they are assumed to be well off all the time.
“I think Labour don't have a clue about this particular policy. I think they don't understand what it actually means to people because that's 20 per cent extra on school fees. Lots of people simply won't be able to afford that.
“That means lots of people coming into the state sector. The state sector is already at capacity that would mean you mean would be sticking kids into bigger classes and smaller classroom. Sounds a bit like the politics of envy and jealousy to me rather than anything else."
The other constituency in the borough, Kensington and Bayswater, is on paper the most marginal seat in the capital. Tory minister Felicity Buchan won the seat from then Labour candidate Emma Dent-Coad by just 150 votes in 2019.
Favourable boundary changes since then and the Conservatives dismal national polling has helped the Labour party. Every major poll conducted since the general election was called has the seat down as a Labour gain.
The last YouGov poll of before polling day found Labour had a large 18 point lead. But private school fees have been a significant point of contention for some parents on the doorstep.
The also constituency has stark inequalities, with residents in the most affluent part of the seat expected to live an average 15 years long than those in the poorest area less than 2 miles apart. It is a seat which includes both Kensington Palace and Grenfell Tower.
Labour candidate for Kensington and Bayswater Joe Powell said: "We have great state schools in this borough and great independent schools as well. Parents should be absolutely free to make whatever choice they want.
“I have met with many of the private school heads and their boards and I think that there will be ways in which they implement this where they bring it in over several years and so on which will mean that parents won't necessarily feel the full effect.
"But the reality is it is a tough choice that we are having to make and that is because of the economic inheritance, if we are lucky enough to be elected, that we will be taking over from the Conservatives.
"We have schools in this borough who have shortages of teachers, who don't have breakfast clubs, who need more mental health support and those are exactly the things we will be addressing with this money and I think lots of parents do understand that bigger picture."
How many London children are in private schools?
London Borough |
Number of children in private school |
Barking and Dagenham |
145 |
Barnet |
8,105 |
Bexley |
697 |
Brent |
2,342 |
Bromley |
4,928 |
Camden |
9,870 |
Croydon |
8,839 |
Ealing |
4,560 |
Enfield |
1,446 |
Greenwich |
3,567 |
Hackney |
10,357 |
Hammersmith and Fulham |
6,591 |
Haringey |
3,685 |
Harrow |
4,167 |
Havering |
825 |
Hillingdon |
3,954 |
Hounslow |
2,382 |
Islington |
964 |
Kensington and Chelsea |
11,191 |
Kingston Upon Thames |
4,229 |
Lambeth |
2,181 |
Lewisham |
2,229 |
Merton |
4,307 |
Newham |
1,011 |
Redbridge |
3,539 |
Richmond Upon Thames |
10,565 |
Southwark |
5,900 |
Sutton |
1,450 |
Tower Hamlets |
2,685 |
Waltham Forest |
2,210 |
Wandsworth |
10,048 |
Westminster |
9,341 |
