'Help state pupils or lose tax breaks', Labour's Tristram Hunt warns private schools

Private schools have been issued a stern warning today as Tristram Hunt told them to either start doing more to help state pupils or risk losing £700 million-worth of tax breaks.

The shadow education secretary said private educators should be sharing their expertise to help state school pupils get into top universities, and should set up joint school programmes such as combined extra-curricular activities, if they wanted to keep receiving government subsidies in future.

ITV News Deputy Political Editor Chris Ship reports:

He said: "I realise that to some this may seem an unnecessarily tough test. But that is not because I want to penalise private education but because I want to make sure we break down the barriers holding Britain back.

"The next Government will say to them 'Step up and play your part. Earn your keep. Because the time you could expect something for nothing is over'."

Hunt's comments were made in a speech delivered at Walthamstow Academy today in which he stated that a Labour government would expect private educators to work better with state schools to ensure children mixed together.

He threatened to strip independent private schools of tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of pounds unless they are prepared to meet minimum standards of partnership with neighbouring state schools, if his party were elected.