Belfast City Hall

Representatives from the Free Presbyterian Church have lobbied the Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn about Labour’s plans to levy VAT on school fees in the province, the BBC has reported.

About 2,500 pupils in Northern Ireland attend grammar school preps, Christian and other independent schools, which charge parents a lot less than school fees on the mainland.

In September, Independent School Management reported that the Northern Ireland government’s education minister Paul Givan was insisting that parents in the province shouldn’t pay VAT on private school fees because fee-paying schools there are different from those in the rest of the UK.

A spokesperson for the Free Presbyterian Church said: “Free Presbyterian Christian schools are run as an integral part of local churches

“Therefore, one chief concern presented to Mr Benn was that the imposition of VAT on Free Presbyterian schools would mean that churches with attached schools would also have to register for VAT and charge the tax on additional services provided by the churches.”

“It was also pointed out that the proposed taxation would place a very heavy burden on parents who are already sacrificing to have their children receive the education that the Christian schools offer.”

Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party MP for South Antrim has previously told the House of Commons that adding the “VAT fee to a religious-based school deprives the protected characteristic of religious belief”.