Jeremy Corbyn will fight the #ToryPriceTag on education – but will George Osborne?

Last Updated: May 18, 2016By
Jeremy Corbyn said David Cameron’s tuition fee proposals would get no support from Labour. And George Osborne? Nowhere to be seen. [Image: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images].

Jeremy Corbyn said David Cameron’s tuition fee proposals would get no support from Labour. And George Osborne? Nowhere to be seen. [Image: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images].

One has to wonder how Dodgy Dave’s right-wing – sorry, right-hand – man George Osborne feels about this plan.

The idea is to allow the more high-quality teaching establishments to charge more, ensuring that only the richest people go there and that only they can afford the best lecturers.

So the UK would end up with a two-tier further education system.

This is a far cry from what Mr Osborne promised in a letter to a constituent, back in 2003.

In a letter to former constituent Rosy Williams, he wrote: “When I was at university 10 years ago, my education was free. Since then, the government has imposed fees, which mean that most students today pay more than £1,000 a year to go to university.

“Now they want to go further and introduce so-called ‘top-up fees’, which will mean students paying £3,000 a year for their education. To my mind, this is a tax on learning and is very unfair.

“The Conservatives have just announced that we will scrap tuition fees altogether when we are next in government. Education will once again be free for students.”

George Osborne's letter about tuition fees, written in 2003.

George Osborne’s letter about tuition fees, written in 2003.

In fact, when the Conservatives returned to government in 2010 alongside the Liberal Democrats, they increased tuition fees to three times the amount in 2003.

This was a breach of a pivotal Liberal Democrat election promise, meaning it is highly unlikely that Nick Clegg or Danny Alexander proposed it.

Was George Osborne lying, back in 2003? The answer may seem obvious, but…

Let’s just see if he’ll come out from under his rock and explain himself.

Jeremy Corbyn has launched a campaign to stop David Cameron lifting the cap on university fees, starting with a petition and the hashtag #ToryPriceTag.

The Labour leader said his party would offer no support for the proposals published this week, which could involve linking what institutions can charge to the quality of their teaching.

Corbyn would like to abolish tuition fees by raising £10bn of taxes on high-earners or businesses and promised to work to stop the limit of £9,000 being scrapped.

Speaking in the Commons, he said: “Students today are more in debt than ever. I want to make it clear to the prime minister that he will not get any support from these benches on raising tuition fees.”

Source: Jeremy Corbyn launches battle to stop tuition fee cap being lifted | Education | The Guardian

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5 Comments

  1. philipburdekin May 18, 2016 at 8:28 pm - Reply

    I can’t trust any Tory/nasty party members as far as I could throw them.

  2. Tony Dean May 19, 2016 at 7:25 am - Reply

    My question about George Osborne is where was he during the Queen’s Speech and the debate afterwards. No sign of him at all.

    • casalealex May 20, 2016 at 8:16 pm - Reply

      i have observed that Giddy has hardly been around for a while. I have a sneaky feeling he might be in rehab….just saying….

  3. casalealex May 19, 2016 at 7:45 am - Reply

    “Students today are in more debt than ever. I make it clear to the Prime Minister that he will not get any support from the Labour Benches on raising tuition fees.

    The Government are penalising students, announcing the abolition of maintenance grants last year and now announcing that fees will be raised even further.

    This is a tax on learning—as the Chancellor of the Exchequer called it in 2003—from a Government that cut taxes on capital gains.

    What message does that send about the economy they want to create?

    It is that wealth generates more wealth with minimal tax—that and effort and hard work land you in a lifetime of debt, with no support while you make that effort.

    What an insult to the aspirations of young people wanting an education.

    We are deeply concerned too about the implications of a free market, free-for-all in higher education.”

    from Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the Queen’s Speech.

  4. NMac May 19, 2016 at 7:47 am - Reply

    The Tory aim is to deny higher education to working class people, and to leave them with a sub-standard primary and secondary educational system. They have never liked the idea of working class people being able to obtain education on a level with them and their equally loathsome wealthy backers, just as they don’t like working class people having access to the best medical facilities – which is why back in the 1940s they voted against the setting up of the NHS.

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