[ad_1]
Keir Starmer has promised a Labour government will introduce a “fairer deal” for university students but is still “working up” what that would be.
The Labour leader on Monday said he would not have been able to afford to go to university today if he was a teenager as it costs too much.
But in an interview with LBC he stood by his decision to abandon his previous commitment to scrapping tuition fees.
He said the “huge damage” done to the economy by the Conservative government over the last few years meant the pledge was no longer viable.
“That has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want when we would want,” he said.
But Starmer said if he wins the next election his government would not keep the status quo which allows universities to charge students up to £9,250 a year.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to leave the current system as it is because we want a fairer deal for students, a more effective deal for students and for universities,” he said.
Asked what Labour’s policy would be, he said: “We are working up our proposals on that and I will happily come back and talk them through when we got them.”
Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour fought the 2017 and 2019 general elections on a manifesto commitment to scrap fees.
During the 2020 Labour leadership campaign, Starmer pledged stick to that policy.
[ad_2]
