Mark Drakeford

The Welsh government is planning to revoke charitable status for private schools in Wales, The Telegraph has reported

The Welsh government’s cabinet secretary for finance Mark Drakeford said the move would put Wales in line with Scotland, where private schools lost charitable status in 2022.

Drakeford said: “We believe that independent schools with charitable status in Wales should be treated in the same way as those which are not charities, which is why we are proposing removing this tax relief.”

The Welsh Conservative’s shadow education minister, Tom Giffard, responded that Labour’s treatment of private schools was “a bias that ultimately will cost the taxpayer in the long run”.

He added: “With parents pulling their children out of private schools and placing them into an already overwhelmed state school system, not only will it cost the taxpayer more, but it will also increase class sizes and heap more pressure on the hard-working teaching staff.

“Labour’s short-sighted thinking reflects their wider ineptitude with the economy, the Welsh Conservatives will always prioritise our children’s education and appropriately fund our schools.”