Tuition Fees
Debate between Anas Sarwar and Greg Mulholland
Anas Sarwar
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention and agree wholeheartedly. Under the coalition’s plans, a couple with three children and one income of £35,000 could save £100 a week for 20 years and still not be able to pay for their children to go through university. It is not wealthy people who will be penalised; instead, the firefighters, teachers, police officers and small business owners will suffer.
Anas Sarwar
I have given way plenty of times but I need to carry on.
It is time that the Liberal Democrats stopped being so shameless on this issue. As we have heard already, in the past few days, the Business Secretary has been delivering leaflets—not personally, but he has been quoted in them; perhaps he should go out and deliver them and then he might get the reaction in the Scottish streets. A headline on the leaflet reads “Cable attacks unfair UK university fees”, and the text goes on:
“Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable has launched a scathing attack on…unfair tuition fees which still have to be paid by Scottish students studying elsewhere in the UK. He likened tuition fees to the infamous poll tax, as the fees are seen as an unfair weight around students’ necks…The Lib Dems want to scrap tuition fees across the UK, as they did in Scotland in 1999”.
Wake up and smell the coffee! I signed the pledge to vote against these fees and I will honour that pledge.