Rachel Reeves‘ team of crack barristers who she has lined up to fight next week’s landmark High Court case against private school parents are all privately educated themselves.
The Chancellor who has previously called private school parents ‘snobs’ is spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money fighting the legal challenge to her 20% VAT on school fees tax.
Squaring up against the parents of special educational needs (SEN) children, as exclusively revealed by the Mail on Sunday two weeks’ ago, are four KCs, the best and most expensive barristers in the land.
At their helm is millionaire barrister Sir James Eadie, who attended one of the country’s most exclusive schools – Radley College in Oxfordshire – whose alumni include former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss and socialite Jamie Laing.
Sir James, who is said to charge over £1000 an hour for his services, is one of the UK’s leading barristers and known as the ‘Treasury Devil’ for his expertise in tricky legal issues.
As schools faced the impending VAT levy, David Smellie, the Chairman of Council at £57,600 a term Radley, where fees have risen by 12.6% since the VAT levy, warned that the school was ‘facing challenging times’ and would be doing what it could ‘to manage the impact of whatever changes come our way’.
He promised parents that ‘the independent school sector is doing what it can to represent the sector’s case to politicians.
Alongside Sir James will be Sarah Hannett who attended world-famous sporting school Millfield in Somerset. The £57,132 a year school has produced scores of sporting legends including ten who represented the UK at the Paris Olympics last summer.
Rachel Reeves, leaves 11 Downing Street to deliver her Spring Statement to Parliament on March 26
The government’s barrister, James Eadie leaves the Supreme court in central London. He attended Radley College in Oxfordshire
Radley College’s alumni include former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss and socialite Jamie Laing
Meanwhile Eleni Mitrophanous KC attended elite all girls’ school Channing in Highgate, north London, which currently costs £25,395 a year, and the fourth KC, Australian Jason Popjoy went to the prestigious Eltham College in Melbourne.
In stark contrast to the amount being spent on the Government’s legal defence for the judicial review which starts next Tuesday (April 1), parents opposed to the education tax have crowdfunded to enable them to launch the action on behalf of their children who have Special Educational Needs (SEN). They have been joined in the action by other claimants including the Independent Schools Council.
Losing in court could force the Government to abandon the tax, which affects all 550,000 pupils in the independent sector. Around 100,000 of these have special educational needs.
Parents bringing the case say the tax breaches their children’s rights to have the education they need because it makes it unaffordable.
In papers filed ahead of the case the Government denies this, saying the children would receive the education they need in the state sector.
Heads lined up to criticise what they say is Reeves’ ‘latest hypocrisy’.
Head of LVS Ascot School in Berkshire Christine Cunniffe said: ‘I wonder if Rachel Reeves, in assembling her team of barristers, ever asked where they went to school, or considered those who didn’t come through the private school pipeline.
Eleni Mitrophanous KC (left) attended elite all girls’ school Channing in Highgate, north London and Sarah Hannett (right) attended world-famous sporting school, Millfield
Millfield, a £57,132 a year school, has produced scores of sporting legends including ten who represented the UK at the Paris Olympics last summer
The fourth KC, Australian Jason Popjoy (pictured) went to the prestigious Eltham College in Melbourne
Eleni Mitrophanous KC attended elite all girls’ school Channing in Highgate, north London, (pictured) which currently costs £25,395 a year
‘Championing such talent could have sent a powerful message and offered real role models to support the government’s mission.’
At Stafford Grammar School, Headmaster Nick Pietrek said: ‘It smacks of hypocrisy’, adding:
‘Is she saying that the KCs taught in the state sector aren’t good enough? It may of course be a perverse decision to use independently educated against their own. Either way this doesn’t look good and let’s not forget how much this is costing the taxpayer at a time when she is struggling to stay within her own fiscal rules. It is clear that there are rules for some and a different set of rules for others.
‘I also find it incredibly disappointing that these KCs have agreed to represent Rachel Reeves given her vitriol towards the sector from which they have so clearly benefited.’