Labour have brought forward their plan to scrap university tuition fees if they win the General Election on 8 June. Originally announced as part of the Labour Party Manifesto last Tuesday, the pledge will see tuition fees scrapped for students starting university this September, with those already enrolled in courses set to see their costs wiped out for the remaining years. Under a Conservative government, those fees will rise to £9,250 a year this autumn.
“You’ve got young people, regardless of their wealth, that are leaving university after working hard, they’ve finally got their degrees, they’re going into their job for the first time, junior doctors etc, and they’re saddled with debt for years and years,” Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said. “Whether they pay back that debt or not, if you’ve ever had a huge amount of debt hanging over your head you know how that feels,” she adds.
Too right, Angela. This one looks set to be a big votes winner for the party on the final day of registration (today) — Nick Clegg’s promise to oppose increasing tuition fees being one of the driving factors in the Liberal Democrats 2010 surge. And while you’ll remember that pledge didn’t go exactly to plan, it does look like Labour have their numbers in order; the £9.5bn bill for scrapping the fees fully budgeted into the manifesto released last week.
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Read: blacksdontvote.com highlights the untapped power of the BME vote.
Credits
Text Matthew Whitehouse
Photography Jacob Sacks-Jones