Furious mother confronted Keir Starmer and demanded he tell her son why he was 'ruining his education' with Labour's proposed policy of imposing VAT on private schools

A furious mother has confronted Sir Keir Starmer and demanded that he tell her son why he was 'ruining his education' with Labour's proposed policy of imposing VAT on private schools. 

Veteran Marie Gardner, who served nearly 25 years in the armed forces, said she may have to put her son into a different school if Labour gets elected and follows through with its 20 per cent tax raid plans.

The mother-of-two from Oxfordshire told Sir Keir during his visit in Portsmouth on June 5 that 'your proposed tax is the single thing that keeps me awake at night', the Telegraph reports. 

'Look my son in the eye and explain why you are about to ruin his chances for he education that he is thriving in,' Ms Gardner added.

Her son is a student at Pinewood School in south Oxfordshire, where tuition costs £22,000 a year. 

Ms Gardner said Sir Keir's team organised a 15-minute meeting between her, her son, the Labour leader and his head of private office, Jill Cuthbertson, in which Ms Gardner reiterated her concerns, with Sir Keir saying he would 'reflect' on them.

She reportedly said that her family was foregoing holidays and replacing the family car in order to afford her son's private school fees to see him 'flourish and grow' at the private school.

Ms Gardner also warned that with imposing VAT on private schools would negatively impact state schools who she said are already 'at capacity' and would be 'oversubscribed and pushed to extremes' under the Labour plans.

But Sir Keir reportedly told Ms Gardner that the tax would actually fund 6,500 new state school teachers as part of Labour's plan to raise £1.5billion with the tax raid to fund these new teachers as well as an Ofsted reform.

This comes as the headmistress of the private school that Sir Keir Starmer's wife attended has branded Labour's plans to charge VAT on its fees as 'short-sighted in the extreme'.

Lady Victoria went to Channing School in Highgate, North London - which costs £23,970 a year for juniors and £26,490 for seniors - before studying law.

If VAT is charged, the additional 20 per cent would land the parents with a daughter at Channing from the age of four with a bill on top of current fees of about £70,600.

Headmistress Lindsey Hughes wrote in her local paper the Hampstead and Highgate Express: 'Charging parents VAT would make our education unaffordable for some and risk their children having to leave the school.

'This would cause significant disruption for children forced to leave the school, but there should be even more concern about the capacity of local state schools to absorb the ensuing increase in pupil numbers.

'This would come not just from Channing, but also from other independent schools in the area.'

Sir Keir previously said the closure of private schools has 'nothing to do with' his policy to charge them 20 per cent VAT.

Answering questions at a campaign event in Bury earlier this month, the Labour leader said: 'I've seen a number of reports of private schools closing. When you look at the details, it's got nothing to do with Labour Party policy at all.

'In fact, I think hundreds of private schools have closed over the last 14 years. And it's about time that was put into the mix when these stories are reported.'

Downham Preparatory School in Norfolk - where almost a third of pupils have special needs - said it would close next month.

The principal of the prep school blamed Labour's policy to levy the tax on the decision to shut due to financial pressures.

Elizabeth Laffeaty-Sharpe said the school - which charges half the national average - would have been forced to pass the levy on to 'ordinary parents like plumbers and electricians'.

She told the Telegraph: 'We will not be the only one. There will be more following us. Small schools just cannot survive this.'

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) suggested Downham Prep School was a typical example of the smaller schools that will fall victim to Labour's tax proposals.

Labour has insisted that it will levy VAT 'straight away' on private school fees if it wins the election on July 4.

Parents and headteachers fear the 20 per cent tax will spark an exodus of pupils as families struggle to afford fees and go into the state sector.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, up to 40,000 children could be pushed out of private schools and into state schools due to Labour's plans - costing the taxpayer up to £300million a year.