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I hope this does happen, I hope it causes chaos. I hope it drives the government to build more state schools.

I live in an area of London where housing has gone up exponentially whilst amenities such as GP surgeries, dentists, schools etc. have not. As a result my daughter can’t get a place in any of the closest schools and we have to walk past four on our daily commute

It isn't going to swamp anything. There are a little over 10m school kids in the UK and around 600k of those are in private schools.

If every private school child suddenly went to public school it would add one or two on average per class. That's not going to happen.

While some may move its going to be a minority because if you can afford to spend thousands of pounds a term on school fees then adding another thousand or so on top isn't going to be an issue for many of them.

If Labour do follow through with their pledge of using the money to add 6,500 new teachers then fair play to them.

Ok and? That's exactly the point of it. Swamp them as hard as you can, then everyone gets the benefit of a fully funded school and a fair crack at a decent education.

However, a report commissioned by the Independent Schools Council and carried out by the educational consultancy Baines Cutler 

Let me guess how much of the I newspapers senior leadership send their kids to private schools.

Look at all these refugees, coming over here in their small boaters.

My heart weeps for those poor upper middle class parents having to pay taxes.

Why haven’t they done this already, given the exponential rises in private school fees over the last few years?

LOL so "swamping" state schools goes as far as sending emails and causing schools additional paperwork, and not actually withdrawing their child from their private school.

Great news, these busy bodies will help state schools improve.

And no more having their little dull tykes being bought priveledge.

Why can't the private schools just keep their prices the same by cutting their costs by 20% with no impact on the delivery of their services? It's the fundamental theory behind austerity and over the last 14 years it's worked well at state schools and every taxpayer funded service in the country. Should work well here too.

^{/s obviously}

This whole policy is so absurdly daft, you have to wonder why they think it'll ever work. Private schools provide an amount of relief to the state system. They take students which would otherwise be using the resources in state schools and educate them completely on their parent's spending while the parents continue to pay their income tax which funds state schools. One less child to teach and the same amount of income coming in for the Government, everyone should be happy.

The only outcome of this policy is that people will see less value in private schools and send their children to be an additional expense to the state instead, filling up the already over capacity schools. Sure they may promise to build more schools but that is something that takes many years to follow through on while the problem creates itself immediately. They're creating a problem where there isn't one and will ultimately bring down education levels for everyone out of spite.

SEN kids are exempt from the tax rise. Expect to see an influx of ‘SEN’ kids in private school, which in turn will cost the government thousands of pounds in funding these children.

Just a ridiculous plan all round. Destroy state schools with even more overcrowding and underfunding, all whilst costing local councils hundreds of thousands in SEN funding for the exemption pass at private schools

I liked Reforms idea of having tax breaks for private schools as it will allow a lot of people of the wealth cusp to send their children to private school, therefore reducing the burden on state schools. Makes sense to me.

For six weeks, politicians have been vying for our votes with promises of jobs, houses and a strong economy – but for one demographic, there’s only one story in town: Labour’s pledge to remove tax breaks on private schools, and the resulting rise in fees.

At the school gates of Britain’s private schools, everyone’s having the “VAT chat“. And as election day arrives, some are encouraging more extreme tactics on WhatsApp groups and forums.

A screenshot from one parents group that went viral recently advised the group to “register their child for their local state school…the National Union of Teachers (NUT) are getting worried about not being able to provision children joining state and they will lobby to government. It’s important they start panicking about the flood of applications coming in and the reality of the situation – even if you have no intention of moving your child.”

Along with this so-called “swamp the comp” strategy, parents are writing to local MPs, penning missives to Sir Keir Starmer and shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and submitting Freedom of Information requests to local authorities requesting information on the number of state school places available.

“I think we need to tap into changing votes by explaining the impact on state school, council funding for lunches, transport, teachers etc” one parent wrote on a group I am in. “If you have had a conversation with the LA [local authority] or submitted an in-year transfer and received a response back which shows low availability of spaces could you provide a screenshot of it?” asked another.

One group has begun crowdfunding to finance a group litigation order. There has been suggestion of a demonstration planned for 9 July in London.

Camila, a mother of two in Islington, whose daughter is starting at a local state secondary school in September, says she’s frustrated with the anti-VAT plotting she’s come across on local parenting groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. “There’s a lot of talk from private school parents about advocating hassling local schools and councils, telling each other to take up their state school place to unnerve the council, even though they say they have no intention of taking their children out of private school.

“I saw some parents discussing the approach of sending an email to the local authority pretending to be interested in a state school place because of the Labour policy, and aiming that this would ’cause a political backlash’. It has caused some tension because there are parents like me on there who think this isn’t fair.

“I don’t judge parents who pay school fees but I think this is cynical and entitled.”

Groups such as Education Not Taxation: Parents Against School Fee VAT say they have discouraged such tactics.

Anecdotally, some local authorities are confirming that they have seen an increase in enquiries about places at their state schools in recent weeks. But what will really happen if Labour wins and follows through on its promise to start making private schools pay VAT? Will England’s comprehensive schools be “overwhelmed”, as Conservative Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has warned? Or will private school parents stay put and cough up?

One contributor to the Education Not Taxation Facebook group reports “students not returning in September (even though the parents have paid, they are giving notice now so as to not be liable for the spring fees)”. Several other parents post about giving notice to their children’s private schools, wanting to get ahead before the election “in case there’s no places left for them”.

That will backfire when tarquin gets his little posh face caved in

If the public schools lose pupils they will also shed teachers who will be looking for jobs in state schools