Ex-pupil's shortbread plan to help protect bursaries at King Charles' former Scottish school from VAT blow

A Scottish businessman who was at school with King Charles has revealed a plan to use shortbread to help protect bursaries at their alma mater from Labour’s VAT raid.

Graham Hadley was keen to find a way to support Gordonstoun in the face of what he believes is a “vindictive” and “short sighted” decision by Sir Keir Starmer’s government to end the VAT exemption on private school fees from January.

In particular, he wanted to help safeguard the bursary programme, which currently supports around a third of the students at the Moray school.

While confirming the end of the VAT exemption in her first Budget on Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she wanted to fund the “highest quality of support and teaching” for the 94 per cent of children who attend state schools.

However, opponents of the move warn it will have little impact on the wealthiest families, but is likely to force out many others who do not come from privileged backgrounds.

Mr Hadley said: “When I was a pupil at Gordonstoun in the 1960s, there was a whole range of society from obviously the top princes, and dukes and earls and so on, but also fishermen’s sons from Buckie, GPO (General Post Office) engineers from Elgin and so on and so forth.

“It was a huge melting pot. And all kids were equal, it was amazing. To lose that, and to have that challenged, to me is a bit of a scandal. I’m a great believer in any youth in the country, any child, having the best opportunities available.”

Mr Hadley was at Gordonstoun from 1960 to 1965, and was a contemporary of King Charles, who arrived in 1962.

After talks with the school, Mr Hadley came up with a plan to try to help ensure the continuation of the bursary programme.

The Fife-based businessman runs a company which holds the registered trademark in the name of Mary Queen of Scots, which applies to eight separate commercial classes, including cashmere, ceramics, confectionery, beer, jam, leather goods and whisky.

Graham Hadley | Submitted

Mr Hadley, an Edinburgh University law graduate who previously worked on the London Stock Exchange, has offered to transfer the trademark in confectionery, which is mainly for shortbread and fudge, to the school.

It means Gordonstoun will own the trademark and can license it out to a company that wants to produce a Mary Queen of Scots brand of shortbread, in exchange for a royalty.

“That could create a nice gentle income to go into the bursary fund,” Mr Hadley said.

“And also it might help increase the 40 per cent of children who are sponsored by the school. Obviously VAT is going to challenge that a bit, so they need all the help they can get.”

Mr Hadley believed former pupils of other independent schools would also be looking at ways to help mitigate the impact of the VAT change, which is expected to lead to several closures in the sector, as well as redundancies and restructuring.

“We all moan, we are great negative critics as individuals, but every now and again when there is something good that is being attacked, I think we have to defend it,” he said.

“My approach would be that individuals can come to the aid by donations, and this was one that just occurred to me could be quite constructive and it’s not a sort of naked cash donation.

“It is a sort of incentive to develop ideas and could be a steady income flow.”

Mr Hadley added that the “ultimate option” for all private schools in Scotland and the UK would be to highlight their charitable status, scrap fees altogether and simply invite parents to make charitable donations to the school.

“Then, if the parents were Gift Aid registered, the government would have to top up those donations by the standard 25 per cent as well, which would certainly change the popularity ratings of Rachel Reeves, at a stroke."

A spokesperson for Gordonstoun said: “Our former pupils are part of a close-knit community, who are successful in a variety of fields.

“This is underpinned by the tireless work of the Gordonstoun Association (GA) which plays a key role in promoting and strengthening former pupils’ links with each other and the school.

“We are incredibly fortunate to receive continued life-long support from our alumni who contribute in many ways towards the success of the school.”

It emerged this week that Scottish private schools are involved in a legal challenge against the UK government’s decision to end the VAT exemption.

The Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) is an affiliate of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which voted on Thursday for legal action.

The ISC is hoping for a judicial review of the government's policy, which will focus around claims of breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The action will be brought around Article 14, the prohibition of discrimination, and the first protocol of Article 2, the right to education.

The Treasury has said it does not comment on potential litigation matters.

Meanwhile, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said this week it was modelling for a 6 per cent decrease in private school pupils as a result of VAT, with parents likely to be asked to pick-up about two-thirds of the extra costs.

This would equate to about 1,800 pupils in Scotland, although the sector has highlighted that the impact could be more severe north of the Border because of lower income levels compared to parts of England.

The OBR also confirmed the policy would be likely to raise an average of £1.6 billion a year. However, it also said there could be an increase in costs of about £300 million associated with the higher number of pupils in the state sector.