Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is set to raise tuition fees to £10,500 per year. Yet, in 2020, Starmer spoke of how they cost too much for working class people:
On tuition fees, I’ve felt very strongly that one of the things that benefited me greatly was not having tuition fees. If you come from a background or family that hasn’t got a lot of money sloshing around… people don’t like to take on debt
In a 2020 Labour leadership campaign pledge, Starmer also stated:
Labour must stand by its commitment to end the national scandal of spiralling student debt and abolish tuition fees.
But now a Whitehall source told the Times:
The current system is unsustainable and we need to raise tuition fees. But at the same time, we need to look at maintenance grants to help those who can least afford it.
Starmer: a history of lies – not least tuition fees
Tony Blair introduced tuition fees in 1998, before that university education was free as a means of investment in the population. Blair, the former Labour prime minister who advises Starmer, also lied about this. It was only weeks before the 1997 election when Blair said:
Labour has no plans to introduce tuition fees for higher education.
The initial fees were a means tested £1,000 per year. Blair made more promises in the 2001 election, stating in the manifesto that Labour “will not introduce top-up fees and has legislated against them”. Then, Blair raised tuition fees again to £3,000 in 2006.
Enter the Conservatives. Like today where they cosplay as a party that cares while in opposition, the Tories had been opposing tuition fees for years. George Osborne, who would later become chancellor, said:
We will scrap [them] altogether when we are next in Government. Education will once again be free for students.
But the then-new leader David Cameron admitted:
I think we are going to have to keep student fees. The money has to come from somewhere … we have got to be realistic.
He went on to triple them to an eye-watering £9,000 per year, announcing the plans in 2010 and introducing them in 2012. The Lib Dems propped him up in a coalition government. Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, had campaigned on scrapping tuition fees. It was yet another lie.
Fees impact on enrolment
In 1950, only 3% of people went to university. That more than doubled to 8% in 1970. Then it went up again to 19% in 1990.
But when Blair brought in tuition fees in 1998 there was a drop in those attending university. Similarly in 2006 and 2012 there were corresponding drops.
Applications bounced back after these drops but it remains to be seen what the enrollment rate could have risen to without such high tuition fees. Especially when England already has the highest university charges in the developed world.
Featured image via Labour Party – YouTube
