LABOUR’S Shadow Education Secretary has pledged to drive up standards in state schools and defended the party’s plan to end tax breaks for private schools.

Bridget Phillipson MP told GB News: “There’s no doubting that the economy is in a total mess, that the Conservatives crashed, and we’ve got a little growth to speak of. But all of the plans that we’re setting out, including the plan that I’m setting out today around primary numeracy, are fully funded and fully costed.

“Politics is about the choices that you make and the choice that Labour would make is to end the tax breaks that private schools enjoy and to put that money into delivering a much stronger, better state education, because that’s where the vast majority of our children go to school.”

In a discussion during Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Martin Daubney, she continued: “The push that we have is around making sure we can raise that VAT and business rates, those tax reliefs that I don’t believe they should have, and we’ll invest that money directly in state education.

“It’s a straightforward, quick way of doing it and we can make sure that we’re putting more money into state education. That’s what it’s all about.”

Asked if the party was indulging in the politics of envy, she said: “Look, I think those comments from that Conservative MP are frankly just ridiculous, completely out of touch with where the vast majority of parents are.

“They want a brilliant state education for their children. That’s where your viewers will be sending their children, they want to make sure we’ve got really strong high and rising standards in the state sector. That’s what I’m interested in.”

She added: “I fully respect parents’ rights to choose what’s best for their children to choose the school that they want to see that children are educated in, and I have absolutely no problem with that.

“But my priority is driving up standards in our state schools. That has to be where our focus is. I recognise that parents want the best for their children.”