National Theatre accused of 'discrimination' against private schools over 'two-tier' ticket pricing

21 June 2025, 18:30

Senior MPs have described the National Theatre's policy of charging private schools more for group bookings compared to state schools as "two-tier" and "discrimination."

Senior MPs and campaigners have urged the Charity Commission to investigate the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, which has a similar policy.

They described the pricing policy as “two-tier” and “socio-economic social engineering”.

The National Theatre offers £10 tickets during term-time for group bookings of more than 10 UK state school students, and £12 tickets for a group of private school students of the same size.

A similar policy is employed by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), which charges private school pupils 60% more than children at state schools.

These pricing policies are not new, but have come under renewed scrutiny after Labour introduced VAT on private school fees for the first time on 1 January 2025.

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Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, called the theatres' policies "disgusting discrimination" and called for them to be reversed.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he accused the Labour government of launching "an abhorrent class war against private schools."

Stuart Andrew, shadow culture secretary, said: “I have a huge amount of respect for the National Theatre, so this is particularly disappointing to see.

“Despite receiving tens of millions in public funding, this feels like clear price discrimination – penalising private school pupils based on crude assumptions about wealth.

“Publicly funded institutions have a duty to widen access, not reinforce stereotypes or engage in socio-economic social engineering.”

Both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company said the pricing policy was a longstanding practice and part of its commitment to widening access to the arts.

The National Theatre has recently appointed Indhu Rubasingham as artistic director. Ms Rubasingham attended Nottingham Girls’ High School, a fee-paying school.

Andrew Leveson, the RSC’s executive director, was also privately educated at University College School Hampstead.

A spokesman for Education Not Taxation, a group representing 25,000 private school parents, said: “It is disappointing to see the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company discriminate against children who attend independent schools.

“They should encourage all children to embrace the arts, rather than forcing children to pay the price for the biases of these charities. We also urge the Charity Commission to investigate and address this issue.”

A spokesman for the National Theatre said: “State school tickets are £2 less than for independent schools (£10 and £12), and both are considerably lower than the market rate.

“This is part of our commitment to widening access for young people to world class theatre. This enables us to welcome as many students as possible at a time when schools across the country face challenging financial pressures which limit extracurricular activity.”

A spokesman for the Royal Shakespeare Company said: “Prices for private schools are at a slightly higher rate due to the differences in budgets that are available between state-maintained schools and schools in the independent sector, a policy which we have maintained for several years.

“However, we also recognise that there are many different kinds of independent schools and for smaller schools, as well as for schools that focus on children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We are looking at how we can make appropriate adjustments, as part of our work to regularly review our pricing policies.”