ELSEWHERE IN POLITICS

-MPs have passed minimum service legislation

-PM refuses to commit to migration level pledge

The latest number, for the year to December 2022, will be published next week

-Animal testing licences for makeup banned

Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party and official opposition has recently spoken out on radio 4, stating he will no longer be advocating for the removal of university tuition fees, and this will not be a labour campaign aim. However, this was a core part of his 2020 leadership campaign under his promise of “social justice” following the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn after the 2019 General Election.

Starmer is expected to announce this policy change at a speech later this month, announcing the party is “likely to move on from that commitment’.

In 2019 the economic think tank; The Institute of Fiscal Studies, published a report, revealing it could cost the taxpayer £6 billion per university year group, if higher education was funded by public funds.

The elected student committee of the Labour party voted just two months ago, to back free higher education for all students, saying the abandoning of this policy would be classed as a “massive betrayal”. Anger has also been expressed by the leftwing Corbyn supporting group Momentum, echoing similar sentiments of betrayal that will be faced by many young people.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman says she recognises the concern around animal testing.

Although he is no longer pushing for the complete removal of tuition fees, he did add that the current system was “unfair” and didn’t work for either students or lecturers, thus Labour is looking at alternative forms of funding, making it very clear that something needed to change under his leadership. This policy reversal, Starmer argues, is a necessary change due to the current economic situa- gairrhyddpolitics@gmail.com tion including the burden on the taxpayer and current interest rates.

The current university tuition system works differently in the various nations of the UK. Scottish students staying in Scotland are eligible for free tuition while home students in Northern Ireland will pay a maximum of £4,630 per year. In England and Wales, however, fees have been capped at £9000 and £9250 respectively. These discrepancies between different regions have led to calls for the scrapping of tuition fees alto- gether, or severely lowering them, for every student.

Starmer is the first labour leader since Tony Blair not to pledge to lower or scrap university costs when running for prime minister. Ed Miliband suggested lowering costs to £6,000 a year while Jeremy Corbyn firmly pledged that he would advocate for the removal of fees within higher education. It’s therefore a change within the party that Starmer is breaking from this, in a bid to centralise himself, and present the

Such a policy reversal has drawn criticism because this is not the only policy he has been seen to have abandoned. For example, he previously stated he wanted to nationalise energy and water companies but is now firmly set against this, other than his pledge for Great British Energy at the last Labour Party conference. This is a move designed to gain more swing voters, however making himself unpopular in the process, with the suggestion being that many young people and labour supporters left feel upset, ignored, and betrayed.