Keir Starmer has said he abandoned his pledge to abolish tuition fees in order to prioritise tackling NHS waiting lists. The Labour leader said he still believes the system of university tuition has “got to change”, but insisted the party could not fulfil both pledges given the state of the British economy. “Looking at the costing for tuition fees or abolishing them, looking at the money we need to put into the NHS , I’ve taken the decision that we can’t do both.
That’s a difficult decision, I’ll accept that,” he told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme. It comes after the Labour peer Peter Mandelson told the Guardian the next government would have to increase funding for universities as a matter of urgency, with vice-chancellors warning that the cash crisis facing universities was very serious. To turn the situation around, they said increases of between £2,000 to £3,500 a year for each student would be needed to stabilise the sector.
Labour has said it would bring down graduate repayments, which would involve different repayments rates according to people’s salaries. Insiders said there was debate within Labour and the party would need to see what it inherited from the Conservatives before making a decision on tuition fees and increasing maintenance for poorer students. Starmer was heavily criticised by the party’s left wing for conceding that he would not meet the tuition fees pledge.
The Labour leader said: “Since then [2020] there’s been huge damage.
