PARLIAMENT is now back from the summer and conference recess and business is back to normal.

Opposition parties are given opportunities to hold debates of their own choosing to hold the government to account.

This week we held a debate on adding VAT to private school fees.

I’ve talked about this before.

The Labour government is putting this forward as a ‘correction’ for a long-standing anomaly of ‘tax dodging’ by private schools.

Even Labour MPs can see this is utter nonsense.

Of course, this appears to affect just those seven per cent of children going to fee-paying schools.

In Wyre Forest we have three fee-paying schools in Winterfold, Heathfield and a faith school.

According to the Independent Schools Council, around a third of paying parents couldn’t care less what the fees are, a third make some sacrifices and a third make extensive savings to send their kids to private schools.

But, remember, many kids with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) issues go privately.

Children of serving armed forces and diplomatic personnel are helped to support an undisrupted education.

These schools provide employment for not just teachers but ground staff, maintenance, cleaning and catering staff. And they are supplied by local businesses.

Hit these schools by making it unaffordable for a third of their parents and the local economy suffers while the children of displaced children will take local state school places.

But that is an old argument, even if still important. What is more worrying is the wider implications.

It has long been a convention that education is a protected right guaranteed not to be taxed.

This was enforced by the EU but Labour now sees it as an opportunity to raise revenues.

However, the drafting of the guidance is worrying.

A school with children above five years of age is eligible to be charged VAT.

So if your child is in a fee-paying nursery and one of their classmates has a fifth birthday the whole school becomes liable for VAT on the fees.

And there is another far bigger group that is at risk.

Remove the convention not to charge VAT on education and every student at every university in England may see a 20 per cent hike in their fees. The same for pupils receiving extra tuition.

This is far more than simply red meat to the left wing. This policy will hit many more people than just the parents of Etonians.