Sir Keir Starmer is under fire after Labour took the decision to press ahead with a tuition fee hike.
The Prime Minister has previously supported university costs being “abolished”, but they are now set to rise for the first time in eight years.
Such a move formed part of Starmer’s 10 key pledges to unify the party, but he ditched the policy while in opposition last year.
The Labour leader said the party would “move on from that commitment because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation”.
Speaking on GB News, Gareth Sturdy from the Academy of Ideas Education Forum said the move speaks to the “disarray” in the Labour Party.
He told Martin Daubney: “It’s another thing that you would not expect a Labour government to be doing, to suddenly hike tuition fees.
Gareth Sturdy lashed out at the Labour Government’s decision
PA / GB NEWS
“It speaks to me of disarray in Labour education policy. I don’t think they know what they are doing with education.”
GB News’s Martin Daubney said Labour are reliant on those in full-time education for a large share of their votes, meaning the move could result in self-inflicted damage.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Gareth Sturdy criticised the decision on GB News
GB NEWS
Sturdy responded: “Beyond that, it’s an intellectual crisis. A solid left-wing position would be that getting a good education is a way of transcending any limitations you have due to your background.
“In my view, Labour should be all for making education as accessible as possible. Having said that, part of the crisis universities are in is too many people going, this just drives the cost up.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is expected to announce the rise which comes in line with inflation.
University leaders have warned of significant financial concerns as a result of frozen tuition fees – which are currently £9,250 a year – paid by domestic students and a fall in international students.
Sturdy joined Martin Daubney on GB News
GB NEWS
Home Office figures released last month revealed a 16 per cent drop in visa applications from overseas students.
This comes at a hefty price for universities who are able to charge significantly higher tuition fees for those coming from abroad.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 universities, recently urged the Government to increase funding for teaching in England by linking tuition fees to inflation and restoring the teaching grant.
The blueprint from UUK, published in September, warned that teaching funding per student was at its “lowest point since 2004”.
Bridget Phillipson is set to announce the hike
PA
Martin ranted on GB News that it will be working class students fleeced the most.
“This won’t ever impact the wealthiest, it certainly won’t impact the numbers of foreign students coming through, who are already through the roof, they already pay more than Brits”, he said.
“Those who suffer are the working classes, those at the bottom who can least afford it.
“People like myself, a coal miner’s son, first person in my family to go to university in an era where there were no university fees.”
