A father-of-three forced to withdraw his eight-year-old son from private school due to Labour's introduction of VAT on fees will be mounting a protest outside the High Court next month.

Matt Harris, 46, says his son Tiger 'is being forced to leave the many friendships he has built over the years at his school, his place of familiarity and his routine through no fault of his own.'

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is leading a High Court challenge against the Government's policy of applying VAT to independent school fees, arguing that it infringes on human rights and negatively impacts families, with a hearing expected in April.

Mr Harris, a solicitor's casework officer from Sidmouth, Devon, say he and his wife Nat have already made all the savings they can, having put Tiger's elder sisters, Isabella, 18 and 14-year-old Milly through independent schools.

'There's nothing left to cut – I drive a 25-year-old Volvo estate and we don't take long foreign holidays or anything,' he told MailOnline.

'I want people to understand that this isn't all about people with millions sending their children to Eton and Harrow, it's ordinary people who have made this choice and decided to save on other things which people take for granted.

'Milly is just coming up to GCSE year and is at an all-girls school with a bursary, so we can't pull her out of school now, but sadly, Tiger's fees, which are currently £13,000 plus VAT, will prove to be too much on our income.'

Former Foreign Office official Mr Harris says he and his Thai-born wife Nat now face a dilemma when he leaves the school – either to home-school Tiger, or possibly move abroad.

'My son was an August baby and the school suggested keeping him back a year, which you can do in the private sector, but not in a state school. So if he went into a state school now, he'd be expected to jump from year 4 to year 6, and we don't think that's fair on him.'

Mr Harris said he's convinced that the ISC will win their case, but the government will appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court and Strasbourg.

'I strongly believe the government will lose this, as it is a breach of the children's human rights.

'I think Keir Starmer knows this but it will be seen by his followers as having immediately fulfilled an election pledge.

'The Department for Education should learn from the private sector where teachers are in it to teach and not just for the pension.

'There are so many ways the private sector can support the state by taking in SEND children 'at cost', for example, and children from really disadvantaged backgrounds to turn their prospects around.'

He pointed out that parents of independent school pupils are 'paying three times' for their children's education.

'We pay our income tax, which includes a provision for education, even though we're not using it ,then we pay for school fees, and now we're being asked to pay VAT on top of that and it's just not fair.'

He says he will be outside the High Court during the three days while the case is expected to run and has set up a Gofundme page to help with expenses for him and others to travel to London and mount the protest with a nominal £10k target.

Mr Harris added: 'We're not expecting to hit the £10k but want to fund banners and help pay for transport and lodgings for anyone who can come along and support us. I expect it's going to be a long road.'

Last month, a study found that state schools across 27 councils in England are already oversubscribed in some year groups – with Years 7 and 8 having the lowest spare capacity.

The data prompted concern that state schools will be unable to cope with an expected increase in demand following Labour's tax raid.

Schools in local authority areas including Bristol, Hull, Coventry, Rutland and South Gloucestershire are said to have no spare spaces in certain age groups.

Some 87 areas said they had a least one year group with under 100 spare places across the entire council, according to the figures published by The Times.

It comes after the long-standing VAT exemption for private schools came to end at the start of this year, which saw many increase their costs by 20 per cent.

An estimated 37,000 fewer pupils will attend private school because of the changes, according to the Government - most of whom will likely go into the state sector.

While there are nationally 578,000 spare places in primary schools and 465,000 in secondary schools, some councils have no spare spaces in some year groups.