Keir Starmer had the Charlotte Edwardes treatment over the weekend with a deep profile in Saturday’s Guardian. One reminiscence about Starmer’s school days caught Guido’s eye:
“I wasn’t the favourite because my mum was quite careful with that. But I did feel slightly separated because the other three went to the comprehensive school and I went to [Reigate] grammar school and the Guildhall School of Music on Saturdays.”
Starmer’s secondary education was at Reigate Grammar School – now a private school – which became fee-paying while he was there (Starmer later claimed he didn’t have to pay fees after the change because he was supported by scholarships and exemptions). Little attention has been given to his Saturday school, however. Guildhall remains one of the most prestigious musical institutions in the country, and in its modern form as a university it charges standard tuition fees, as it also did in Starmer’s day. So Starmer, who has repeatedly claimed his background was “working class” and suggested he didn’t have any private education, actually attended a private music school on Saturdays…
Starmer previously confirmed this in 2015, when he told a local Primrose Hill magazine On The Hill: “I was a junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music till 18.” It is probable that as a talented flautist, Starmer had at least some of his Guildhall fees paid for him, as an exhibitioner. But Labour’s policy to impose VAT on private school fees extends to independent music schools too – and the sector says that the policy would make it harder for children from a similar background to Starmer to attend those schools. Take choir schools, for example, which are largely independent. David Morton, from the Choir Schools Association, says:
“Not all independent schools are like Winchester, Eton or Rugby; they are tiny little schools like specialist choir schools. Adding 20pc onto fees could be catastrophic for typical small choir schools. They just won’t be able to afford to pay scholarships for the pupils. If you start to lose these choir schools you will inevitably damage the national heritage in terms of the quality of music you can produce.”
In the cloistered world of elite music, Labour is pulling up the ladder, even as Starmer boasts about his own private musical education…
Starmer was read out a list of his 13 U-turns on BBC Radio 2, to which he responded:
“Well, I am a common sense merchant.”