Labour refuses to guarantee lower tuition fees in manifesto

Bridget Phillipson yesterday told The Yorkshire Post that the current model for tuition fees and repayment is broken, but would provide a plan on how Labour would change it.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer earlier this week suggested that the current financial situation of the country could mean that Labour would drop its previous pledge to scrap fees for university students in its next manifesto.

The party stood on the policy in both 2017 and 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn and it was one of Sir Keir’s pledges when he ran for Labour leader in 2020.

He said at the time: “Labour must stand by its commitment to end the national scandal of spiralling student debt and abolish tuition fees.”

In an interview with The Yorkshire Post at Leeds City College, Ms Phillipson refused three times to clarify what Labour’s position on tuition fees would be ahead of the next election, including whether they will be lower than under the Conservatives.

“The current system that we have right now, around higher education funding, is not sustainable in the long term,” she said.

“The government knows this. It's obvious to everyone and what they've brought in is a system that is even more regressive than the system that preceded it.

“So it's clear to me that we do need to see a change in that area, because it can't be right, that young people who are low and middle owners face a very high marginal tax rate as a result of the more regressive system that the government has introduced.

“There are big questions that will need to be answered around a better system for the future.”

The shadow education secretary said that the current differences in repayments between low and higher earners were unfair, leaving the door open to potential hikes in repayments of high earners, or easing the burden on those such as nurses.

“It isn't right that nurses, for example, will end up paying back more than the highest earners in our society,” she said.

“I think the fundamental unfairness of the system that we have right now is that low and middle earners are going to be paying back more and more.”