Finance Bill Report Stage: Amendment 67

Parliament voted on 3 March 2025 on whether to remove the VAT charge on private school fees as part of the Finance Bill's report stage. Amendment 67, tabled by Conservative MP James Wild alongside related amendments 68 and 69, would have deleted clauses 47 to 49 of the Finance Bill, which stripped independent schools of their VAT exemption and imposed the standard 20% rate on education fees from January 2025. The amendment was defeated by 347 votes to 167, Division 111. The vote confirms that the VAT charge on private school fees, which took effect on 1 January 2025, remains in law. The government argues the policy will raise £1.7 billion by the final year of this Parliament, money it says is directed at state school improvements and related education commitments. Removing the exemption means independent schools either absorb the additional cost or pass it on through higher fees, affecting families currently paying for private education. The measure is the first time education as a category has been subject to VAT in the UK. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 290 Labour MPs and 37 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment, giving the government a commanding majority. The Conservatives provided 94 of the 167 ayes, joined by all 59 voting Liberal Democrats, 6 Reform UK MPs, and 3 Democratic Unionists. The SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Greens all voted no. The Liberal Democrats' support for the amendment is notable given their general positioning, though no cross-party Labour rebels were recorded. This vote sits alongside a related division on 31 March 2025, when MPs voted 301 to 167 to reject Lords amendments to the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill, suggesting consistent parliamentary support for the broader private schools VAT policy.