“Anniversary of tuition fees hike is a chance for Jo Swinson to apologise”

On the ninth anniversary of the vote to treble university tuition fees to £9,000, Labour has urged Jo Swinson to fully apologise for her party’s role in betraying young people.

 

The call for an apology comes as new research from Labour shows that by 2023-24 tuition fee loans are predicted to rise to over £10 billion. In 2012-13 (the academic year when the fee cap was increased to £9,000) students were taking out around £3bn in tuition fee loans.

 

This has all been caused as a direct result of Tory policies, implemented with the help of the Liberal Democrats in the coalition government.

 

 

“Today’s anniversary is a timely reminder of how quickly the Liberal Democrats broke their promises for a taste of power with the Conservatives, and an opportunity for Jo Swinson to make a full apology.

 

“That broken promise left many young people bitterly disillusioned with politics, which is particularly destructive because Labour believes politics is a force for good in our society.

 

“Jo Swinson said that her party ‘long prided itself on its commitment to education as the great leveller’, before voting with the Tories to treble fees, scrap grants, and impose all the cuts that are destroying our public services and left millions of children growing up in poverty.

 

“Labour will scrap university tuition fees once and for all, restore grants and bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance for college students. Education should be a right for all, not a privilege for the few.“

 

Jo Swinson, along with Tory and Lib Dem colleagues in the Coalition Government, voted to raise the cap on tuition fees to £9,000 on 9 December 2010.