Parents opting to privately education their children ‘must pay their fair share’ to help raise standards in state schools, the High Court heard.

Sir James Eadie KC, acting for Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, spoke out as part of a hearing into the Government’s imposition of VAT on private school fees.

He was responding to Lord Pannick KC, who said Reeves’ decision was ‘unprecedented’ and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights Article 2 of the First Protocol (A2P1), which protects the right to education.

Lord Pannick is representing a group of parents who say they may be unable to continue sending their children to private school if fees are increased to cover VAT.

The claimants’ parents want them to attend independent schools for several reasons, including special educational needs (SEN), religious beliefs, and the alleged need for single-sex education due to past bullying.

However, the Government argues that the claimants would be supplied with a place at a state school free of charge if one were sought, adding: “That alone is sufficient to dispose of the challenge.”

But Pannick said the response ‘ignores the core right enjoyed under A2P1: the right of access to all those educational institutions which exist in the state’.

On the first day of the three-day hearing, it was also argued that the policy amounted to discrimination.

Jeremy Hyam KC said children with SEN – as two claimants have – ‘will be going into a system which either will not meet, or is highly unlikely to meet, their needs’.

The tax could also constitute religious discrimination, it was claimed, against Charedi Jewish children – who, as visibly Jewish, are likely to face antisemitism and discrimination in non-Charedi schools – and children of Islamic faith, who are unable to access an Islamic education programme in state schools.

In his response, In a response on Wednesday, Eadie told the court the Government was under no obligation to subsidise private education, pointing out that parents who send their children to private school must pay ‘their fair share’ to raise standards for the 94% of children who attend state schools.

And he said making exceptions for the individual pupil claimants would be both ‘unfair in principle’ and ‘administratively unworkable’.

The hearing was heard by Dame Victoria Sharp, Lord Justice Newey, and Mr Justice Chamberlain.

Judgment was reserved.