National Security Alarm Raised Over Impending Closure of UK Private Schools

Growing Chinese investment in UK independent schools has sparked concerns.

Published: 6/22/2026, 2:01:56 PM EDT

National Security Alarm Raised Over Impending Closure of UK Private Schools — A general view of The Dulwich College in Beijing, China, on April 25, 2015. (Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)

With UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing his resignation, one of the critical questions regarding the UK-China relationship has been thrust upon the leading candidate.

Andy Burnham, the ex-Greater Manchester mayor and newly elected Member of Parliament, is reported to be the highly likely successor to Starmer as Labour Party leader and prime minister.

Sir Gavin Williamson, a member of Parliament, posed a question to Burnham just after Starmer announced his exit early in the morning on June 22.

“Labour's tax on British schools is making our educational institutions financially vulnerable. This is now a national security issue," Williamson said. He then asked Burnham, “Do you think we should stop the Chinese Communist Party from buying up our schools?”

Williamson forwarded a report by The Telegraph, which mentioned that Malvern St James—a Worcestershire school famed for alumnae like Dame Barbara Cartland—is set to close.

Located just half a mile from a British defense tech firm and 20 miles from the Government Communications Headquarters, the site's future is up in the air. Its Chinese owners have rejected several purchase offers and refuse to reveal their plans for the property, raising serious concerns among UK security experts and politicians.

Prompted by growing concern over the fate of Malvern St James, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith—a vocal critic of Beijing—plans to submit a written question to the government. According to the report, he is troubled by what he describes as the “encroachment of Chinese institutions into British establishments.”

In recent years, Chinese investors with deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party have quietly acquired dozens of independent British schools. Simultaneously, several of the UK's most prestigious educational institutions have established satellite campuses within China. This double-edged expansion has triggered growing alarm among senior politicians.

The phenomenon isn't unique to the UK. Across the Atlantic, similar moves have made headlines, most notably the buyout of the New York Military Academy, where President Donald Trump went to school.

However, that momentum has ground to a halt. One of the turning points was the COVID pandemic, which sparked an exodus of Western faculty that schools have struggled to replace.

Beijing has also intensified its grip on the private education sector, enforcing new guidelines that require even international outposts to weave state-sanctioned patriotism and national security themes into the classroom.

After the pandemic, several international private schools closed, including Dulwich College International’s preschool in Shenzhen.

The era of easy growth has vanished. As the educational consultancy Venture Education bluntly summarized in a report released earlier this year: “The rapid growth in both the number of British-partnered schools and school brands is now over.”