Miattah Fahnbulleh, the Energy Secretary, defended her right to educate her children privately even though she supports Labour's decision to impose VAT on independent schools, a policy which has forced the closure of 115 fee-paying schools. Ms Fahnbulleh, who was herself educated at the Beechwood School in Tunbridge Wells where fees are £8500 per term, said, 'We've got to get to a system where our state education system is serving all our children. And so I found the the debate around the VAT exemption really bizarre because of course government's not going to subsidise (sic) parents sending their kids to independent schools'. Challenged by Lewis Goodall on whether parents who could no longer afford to send their children to a private school had the right to be 'quite irritated' with her, Ms Fahnbulleh (who is married to a hedge fund owner) replied, 'Well, Lewis, you don't know my personal circumstances and I won't go into them'.
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