A LABOUR Cabinet minister sends all three of her children to private school, it has emerged.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has declined to disclose how much she spends on her children’s education but admitted to the Mail on Sunday she has her kids privately educated.
The paper reported that it is estimated that she and her City trader husband, Graham, spend at least £50,000 per year on their children’s education.
The family are reported to live in a £1.3 million home in south-east London and Fahnbulleh is the MP for Peckham, where 40% of children live in poverty.
Fahnbulleh backed Labour’s removal of the exemption of VAT from private school fees.
Tory chair Kevin Hollinrake told the Mail on Sunday that the Labour MP was a case of “classic champagne socialism”.
He added: “Parents who are now unable to afford to send their kids to private school will no doubt feel aggrieved over this hypocrisy.”
Fahnbulleh, the first refugee to sit around a Labour Cabinet table, was educated at the Beechwood School in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where fees are as much as £8199 per term.
It was previously reported that she was among a number of MPs to leave out their expensive private educations from their entries in the Who’s Who guide.
In her maiden speech in Parliament, Fahnbulleh spoke of what the neighbourhood of Peckham had taught her, saying it had showed her that “you can work hard every day and still live in poverty, that our kids can be talented but still be deprived a shot, and that you can have billionaires living in the same borough as families that cannot feed their kids”.
She added: “Our schools, youth services, hospitals and care system are at breaking point, and children in my schools tell me that they only feel safe at home or at school – nowhere in between.”
The Mail on Sunday reported that Fahnbulleh’s family lived “within striking distance” of some of England’s top private schools, including the £27,000-a-year Colfe's School and the £30,000-a-year St Dunstan's.
The National has approached Fahnbulleh for comment.
