Labour’s VAT raid fails to stop fall in state school teacher numbers

State schools are losing teachers despite Labour’s pledge to boost their numbers with its VAT raid on private schools. The number of teachers in state nursery, primary and secondary schools fell by 4,754, or 1.1 per cent, between the 2023-24 and 2025-26 academic years, according to an analysis of Department for Education (DfE) data published on Thursday.