Labour peer faces investigation after being accused of lying during a debate about Keir Starmer’s private-school VAT plans
Sir Keir Starmer‘s former ethics adviser faces an investigation by the parliamentary authorities after being accused of lying during a House of Lords debate about Labour‘s plans to slap VAT on private-school fees.
In an emotionally charged speech earlier this month, Baroness Ramsey of Wall Heath claimed that pupils at her daughter’s ‘hard-pressed’ state school were banned from running in their playground because there was too little space.
This, she said, was because some of its land had been sold to a neighbouring private school in a ‘desperate’ bid to raise ‘extra cash’.
‘My daughter pressed her face up to the wire fence, gazing at the endless fields stretched out in front of her for the benefit of the one in 15, and thought that that was not fair,’ she told the Lords.
But last night Baroness Ramsey, who overhauled Labour’s internal complaints process in 2020 after the party was rocked by anti-Semitism allegations, was facing questions over whether she had ‘concocted a story’ to mislead her fellow peers.
The Baroness told Lords: ‘As I said in the debate, my daughter was told not to run in her new school playground because it was too small to do so safely. I and other parents have been told this was because some of the land had previously been sold to the adjoining private school.’
The complainant says Baroness Ramsey, who is married to Jonathan Slater, former chief civil servant at the Department for Education, could only have been referring to Charter School North Dulwich and the neighbouring private James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS)
In a hard-hitting complaint to the House of Lords Commissioners, seen by the MoS, another parent from Dulwich in South London, near where Baroness Ramsey lives, claims the peer’s account was ‘fundamentally untrue’.
The complainant, a father of two who wants to remain anonymous, says he has ‘confirmed’ there had been no such sale of land and ‘certainly not between the only state and independent schools which do border each other in the area’.
The complainant says Baroness Ramsey, who is married to Jonathan Slater, former chief civil servant at the Department for Education, could only have been referring to Charter School North Dulwich and the neighbouring private James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS).
The parent says there has been ‘no land transfer between the schools, and JAGS has owned its site since 1886’. A JAGS spokesman confirmed that no sale of land had taken place.
Moreover, the trust that runs Charter School is chaired by Mr Slater, sacked from the DfE in 2020 after the backlash following the downgrading of A level results.
In addition, the complainant says that Charter School, far from being ‘hard-pressed’ is highly academic and recognised as one of ‘the most sought-after state schools in the country, with excellent facilities’.
He also points out the trust that runs it has net assets of £77 million, nearly double JAGS’s £43 million reserves.
The trust that runs Charter School (pictured) is chaired by Mr Slater, sacked from the DfE in 2020 after the backlash following the downgrading of A level results
The complainant added: ‘I feel very concerned about misinformation being quoted so fictitiously, frivolously and disingenuously to the public, let alone to the House of Lords.
It is even more worrying to think that Baroness Ramsey has concocted a story involving her own daughter for the purpose of supporting Labour’s policy.’
The House of Lords Commissioners confirmed it has received the emailed complaint and it is ‘being dealt with’.
Baroness Ramsey responded: ‘As I said in the debate, my daughter was told not to run in her new school playground because it was too small to do so safely. I and other parents have been told this was because some of the land had previously been sold to the adjoining private school.’
