Labour chief Sir Keir Starmer drops pledge to scrap tuition charges

Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed Labour is planning to desert its promise to scrap tuition charges – a key pledge of his bid when he ran for the get together management in 2020.

He had beforehand hinted he deliberate to row again on the dedication – and on Tuesday pointed to the “different financial situation” as the rationale behind the deliberate coverage shift.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Keir stated: “We are likely to move on from that commitment because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation.”

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He added: “We are looking at options for how we fund these fees. The current system is unfair, it doesn’t really work for students, doesn’t work for universities.”

Labour will “set out a fairer solution” within the close to future, he stated.

Sir Keir stated he didn’t “want that to be read as us accepting for a moment that the current system is fair or that it is working”.

He didn’t say what plan or insurance policies would exchange the present stance, however added: “You and others would be quizzing me hard if I just simply said I’m going to ignore the current economic situation and just press on with something, notwithstanding the cost.”

Tuition charges are presently £9,250 per yr, with the present system launched below the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition authorities.

Supporting the abolition of tuition charges was one among Sir Keir’s 10 pledges in his marketing campaign to interchange former Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn.

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Sir Keir and his shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been working to point out that Labour is fiscally accountable, and never make massive spending commitments.

The value of scrapping tuition charges has been estimated to be simply shy of £10bn yearly.

Speaking in January, Sir Keir indicated the problem Labour would have to find such a sum.

He stated: “University tuition fees are not working well, they burden young people going forward.

“Obviously we have now bought various propositions in relation to these charges that we are going to put ahead as we go into the election.

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“But I have to be honest about it, the damage that has been done to our economy means that we are going to have to, and we know we will, cost everything as we go into that election and we will do that with discipline as we have done it so far.

“I’m not going to spell out our manifesto upfront… however I can say that each dedication we make will likely be completely absolutely funded. That is a cast-iron assure as we go into that election.”

Mr Corbyn, who has since misplaced the Labour Party whip over his response to an inquiry into antisemitism and now sits as an unbiased MP, tweeted his help for scrapping tuition charges this morning.