Labour’s private school tax raid is based on flawed calculations and could raise no money, a think tank has claimed.

Adding VAT to private school fees is a flagship Labour education policy which it has repeatedly claimed would bring in £1.6 billion a year to invest in state schools.

However, researchers have claimed that the policy would raise far less, and possibly none at all.

EDSK, an education think tank, traced back Labour’s claim the policy would raise £1.6 billion to a study published over a decade ago and found that the calculations had mistakenly included over 50,000 pupils who were being educated in state-funded schools.

A report by the think tank also said it believed that the £1.6 billion calculation included adding VAT on fees for privately educated nursery-aged children, which is not Labour’s policy.

The most expensive schools are likely to be the least impacted by the policy because wealthy parents could pay more fees in advance to avoid the policy and boarding school accommodation is exempt from VAT, the report warned.