Labour Party MPs like Keith Vaz seem to need inflated salaries in order to finance their lives of luxury. In Keith’s case the need for money is all the more necessary given his public rejection of a comprehensive education system that serves to promote equality and a decent and free education for all. I say this because in recent years Keith has been paying around £30,000 a year to have his two children educated for a life of privilege at HABS, which is amongst the most prestigious fee-paying education establishments in the country. Thus his son Luke graduated from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School in 2013, while his daughter graduated from Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School in 2014.
It is interesting to note that, like Keith Vaz, who protected his friend Greville Janner from prosecution in 1991, Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School came under fire in 2009 for previously protecting a pedophile from the law. This is because in 2009, Peter Clulow, a former teacher at Haberdashers’ Aske’s was jailed for 27 months when he “admitted five counts of indecent assault and one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity”. He had previously departed from Haberdashers’ Aske’s in 1985 “after two boys made a tape recording of him abusing them and he was confronted with the evidence by the headmaster.” But in the interest of protecting the reputation of the school and their well-heeled teachers “no formal complaint was made to the police and he was still able to work as a private tutor.” The admission of guilt on the part of the former teacher only applied to his recent commitment to abusing children.
It is perhaps unsurprising that Luke Vaz now studies at Cambridge University, following in his fathers footsteps. But prior to starting university, Luke has also enjoyed summer placement jobs working for some of the world’s leading finance companies. Such work experience includes time with international law firms like Clifford Chance, global tax dodgers KPMG, and even a month with criminal banking giant Morgan Stanley – where he spent time “shadowing” their Executive Vice-President. Luke recalled, this “allowed me to see how firms worked at the upper echelons, seeing the value of experience and loyalty.”
Morgan Stanley is of course the same investment bank that took on Tony Blair as one of their most trusted advisers in 2008 for the tidy sum of $3.2 million a year. 2008 also marked the year that Tony’s son, Euan Blair started work for Morgan Stanley -– in what seems to be preparation for a career in the Labour Party.
Unlike Labour Party MPs like Keith Vaz, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and Leicester Independent Councillors Against Cuts campaign for the idea of a free and fair comprehensive education system for all (and locally we have called for the reversal of the decision to let Lord Janner off the hook). At both the national and local level, TUSC actively back the National Union of Teachers’ manifesto for education (which can be read in full here). There should not be one form of education for the rich and another for the rest of us, and so it is in this vein that we will continue to work in alliance with teachers and students to help create a socialist society where each and every person in society has the opportunity to gain a first-class education.
Thoughts of a Leicester Socialist 
Our whole education system is rigged, an example; a Cambridge don works as a part time tutor at the Leys School in Cambridge. Isn’t this a conflict of interest when it comes to admission?. Some of these private schools have more bargaining power when it comes to admission; that’s what money really buys you, not the education.
I know of a state-school pupil who could not gain a place at the LSE with straight A’s, but a relative of mine got a place after flunking her A-levels the first time. The only difference: she went to one of the finest girls schools in the country.
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but I do believe conflicts of interest are destroying the hopes of many of our state school pupils. The worst thing is that people like Keith believe this is a divine right. Even the press don’t point this out. This is a social mindset at the top based on ‘tradition’, tradition does not land a man on the moon.