Teacher numbers have plummeted despite Labour‘s ‘vindictive’ tax on private schools to pay for 6,500 more.Â
New official statistics show there were 466,372 teachers in 2025, a decrease of 1,900 on the year before, when Labour came to power.
The data, which is the latest available, shows falls at both primary and secondary level – with only special needs teacher numbers growing.
The Government said the reductions were due to a fall in pupil numbers caused by the declining birth rate, and that primary schools were not included in the recruitment target.
It said teacher numbers are up by 1,646 in further education settings – which are not included in the statistics.
Ministers have repeatedly said the painful new VAT on private school fees was necessary to pay for an extra 6,500 teachers for state education by the end of this Parliament.
Laura Trott, Shadow Education Secretary, said: ‘Labour claimed that taxing education would boost teacher numbers in state schools. Instead teacher numbers have fallen, while children have faced the disruption of school closures and mid-year transfers.
‘This is another broken promise from Labour and only piling more pressure on state schools.’
Teacher numbers have plummeted despite Labour’s tax on private schools to pay for 6,500 more (pictured: Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson)
New official statistics show there were 466,372 teachers in 2025, a decrease of 1,900 on the year before, when Labour came to power (pictured: protesters against the private school tax last year)Â
Shadow Business and Trade Minister Gareth Davies added: ‘The whole pretext for Labour vindictively taxing private education was their manifesto pledge of 6,500 extra teachers.
‘Now it turns out that teacher numbers have plummeted. Another promise broken and in the dust.’
Daniel Kebede, General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) agreed, saying it ‘made a mockery of the Government’s promise’.
The data, from the Department for Education (DfE), is taken from an annual November snapshot census and rounded to the nearest 100.
It shows there were 212,800 teachers in state-funded nursery and primary schools in 2025, a decrease of around 2,900.
And in secondary schools, there were 218,500 – a decrease of 500.
Meanwhile, there were 30,300 in special needs schools and pupil referral units, an increase of 1,100, and 4,800 teachers who were centrally employed by councils, an increase of 300.
Ministers have a long record of claiming the extra £1.7 billion a year raised by 2029-30 from the private schools tax would be spent on state sector teachers.
In December last year, the chancellor Rachel Reeves said: ‘Every single penny of that money will go into our state schools to ensure every child gets the best start in life, and that is so often through being able to recruit and retain the best teachers.’
In October, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson mocked private school parents hit by the tax by saying: ‘Our state schools need teachers more than private schools need embossed stationery.’
Labour promised 6,500 extra teachers by the end of this Parliament in their election manifesto.
However, in June last year they said this target would not apply to primary schools because of a decline in pupil numbers.
Today, officials said that overall numbers had actually risen, when discounting primary schools and when adding in further education colleges, which are not covered by the data release.
In addition, they said they were using a starting point of November 2023 – rather than 2024 –Â to measure their progress against.Â
When looking at that two year period between 2023 and 2024, there were rises in secondary, special needs and further education settings – adding up to 4,654.
The Government said it was still ‘on track’ to meet its recruitment target, and there had been a 13 per cent rise in people training to teach in the last year.
Unveiling the data, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said on X: ‘Latest stats show we’re over 70 per cent of the way to our target to recruit 6,500 teachers in the places they’re needed most. We have 4,654 more teachers in those schools and colleges compared to 2024.’
The Government said it was still ‘on track’ to meet its recruitment target.
Shadow Education Minister Saqib Bhatti said on X: ‘1,900 fewer teachers! Independent schools being taxed into oblivion and what is happening to all that money?
‘Where are the 6,500 extra teachers that Labour promised?
‘With fewer teachers and more pupils moving into state schools it is quite clear that the state sector will be put under greater strain.’
Yesterday, figures from the Independent Schools Council showed there are now 30,000 fewer pupils in private schools since before Labour came to power in 2024.Â
Iain Mansfield, of the Policy Exchange think tank, said: ‘30,000 fewer children in private schools. 1,900 fewer teachers in state schools. A lose/lose proposition.’
