Draft Higher Education (Fee Limits and Fee Limit Condition) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Alicia Kearns Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2026 General Committees

[Alicia Kearns (Rutland and Stamford) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I think you were very magnanimous about the inaccuracies in the documents before us.

The real and growing burden on young people already struggling in a difficult labour market will only be added to by the draft regulations. The right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer), now the Prime Minister, was elected leader of the Labour party on a pledge to scrap tuition fees altogether. The Education Secretary promised graduates that they would pay less under a Labour Government, offering “breathing space”, in her words, at the start of their working lives. Yet in office, Labour has done the exact opposite.

Tuition fees being raised by 3.1% to £9,535 was labelled “economically and morally wrong” by university chiefs. Perhaps the Government will be grateful that the impact assessment makes no reference to the impact on young people. The Government then froze repayment thresholds, an effective tax on graduates that Martin Lewis himself called

“not a moral thing to do”.

This is not breathing space; it is an attack on students.

To add insult to injury, universities did not even benefit, because every penny of those higher fees was wiped out by Labour’s job tax. Now, having already hammered students and graduates, the Government return to do it again, raising maximum tuition fees further to £9,790 next year and £10,050 a year later. That is after the Conservatives froze university tuition fees for eight years. The reality of plan 2 student loans means that millions of graduates’ debt is growing faster than they will ever be able to repay. I see that in my own team—they are looking at fees that go up and up, and at £72,000 or £80,000 of debt. That is something that we must fix. We must reflect on how we got there and ensure that we learn from mistakes and correct them.

[David Burton-Sampson (Southend West and Leigh) (Lab)]

I find it quite astounding that the hon. Lady is making this statement, given that her party’s coalition Government with the Liberal Democrats almost tripled—tripled—tuition fees to £9,000 in 2012.

[Alicia Kearns]

Forgive me, but I did not hear a question in that intervention. It is basic courtesy in the House to ask a question in an intervention, but I congratulate the hon. Member on getting some points with the Whips there. If he had listened to my wording, I said that we should reflect and learn from how we got here. I was acknowledging that we must learn when we make mistakes—that is exactly what I just said. He takes me on to my next point, so I thank him for recognising that I said that we must learn from mistakes, but as there was no question, I cannot answer one.

The average plan 2 graduate must now earn £66,000 a year just to begin paying down their balance. Raising the fee cap makes that problem worse, not better. Youth unemployment stands at 16.1%, which is the highest in more than a decade, and higher than the European average; it is the first time our country has been in that place since records began. Graduate recruitment is at a record low, yet the Government’s answer is to load more debt on to young people’s shoulders. That is a betrayal of the young generation.

Young people deserve better than this, which is why the Conservatives are proposing a genuine new deal for young people. We will abolish real interest rates on plan 2 loans so that balances can never spiral beyond inflation again. We will guarantee fully funded apprenticeship places for 18 to 21-year-olds, and introduce a first job bonus to get young people into work and saving for their futures. Martin Lewis said that the Government’s approach is

“not a moral thing to do”

but, in contrast, he has welcomed our plan, and said that it is the right thing to do.

Higher fees without better outcomes is not a higher education policy. It is yet another broken policy from Labour, who are simply burdening young people with more and more debt.

--- Later in debate ---

[Josh MacAlister]

I thank Committee members for their contributions today. I will endeavour to respond to the points made by the hon. Members for Rutland and Stamford and for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire, but before I do, let me reiterate the importance of this statutory instrument for putting our higher education sector on a secure financial footing and providing the financial certainty that it needs. I have not heard how either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats would propose to do that in the absence of this statutory instrument for the financial years under discussion.

There are few phrases to describe the position of the Conservative party other than “crocodile tears”. The hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford highlighted repayment thresholds. I have not had the chance to look at her speeches or voting record from the time, but from 2012 onward the Conservative Government of the day designed and introduced the very system that she is now criticising. In the year that the system was introduced, they made a commitment not to freeze thresholds but to increase them. However, in their very first year, they froze the thresholds.

[Alicia Kearns]

Will the Minister give way?

[Josh MacAlister]

I would be delighted to give way if the hon. Lady will answer this question: how many other times were thresholds frozen by that Government?

[Alicia Kearns]

I do not want the Minister to unnecessarily age me in this debate, so I want to put on record that, unfortunately, I cannot give him that data on my voting record because I was just finishing university then and was still enjoying the joys of life.

[Josh MacAlister]

I am pleased to hear that that is where the hon. Lady was at that time. The Conservative Government and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition froze thresholds 10 times.

--- Later in debate ---

[Josh MacAlister]

I appreciate my hon. Friend drawing the Committee’s attention to the wider debate around higher education funding at the moment. It is true to say that fee income is only one line of income for universities and that they are facing a whole bunch of pressures in a competitive environment. The Government are committed to looking at the student loan system and making it fairer. I have made that commitment, as have the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary.

One urgent point that I would draw the Committee’s attention to is that a number of years of freezes on the tuition fee cap has eroded the income value, which is a significant income stream for universities. If that were to continue, it would further heighten the situation. As a Minister, I have spent time listening to MPs making very powerful representations about the challenges that universities in their constituencies face because of the legacy of the erosion of the value of the fee income. If we were to not increase fees in line with inflation, which is what we are talking about here, it would further add to that funding challenge that universities face. I do not think it would be responsible for us to do that, given that the financial years we are talking about are pretty imminent.

[Alicia Kearns]

The Minister has opened the box on the topic of funding for universities by mentioning how central that funding is. One of my gravest concerns is the amount of money that is coming from the Chinese Communist party into our universities. Does the Minister believe that by taking this action today, the Government will be able to focus on cracking down on those universities that seem to think there is no problem with taking vast sums from China, which then threatens MPs by saying that it will not take the children of sanctioned MPs at its universities or that it will withdraw all funding from universities if the Dalai Lama speaks at them or there are efforts by Hongkongers or others? Given that the Government are taking action to make sure that universities have a more valid footing, will he make sure that those funding streams are cracked down on?

[The Chair]

Order. We are not debating how universities are funded by overseas territories, but I will let that go. Minister, you may respond very briefly on that point, and then we will move on.