Higher Education Fees

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Elizabeth Truss

Thursday 9th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Thomas]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point about the stark contrast between what the Government said they would do when in opposition, and what they are doing in government.

The second myth that Government Members have peddled is that the responsible position was to change the balance in funding between graduates and the Government. That might have been a reasonable line if a slight shift was involved, but the Government have thrown away the scales and are loading the whole cost —not a bigger part, but the whole cost—of a university education on to the graduate, particularly for art, social science and humanities courses.

The Deputy Prime Minister tells us that social mobility will not suffer. The money for widening participation, for championing the brightest and best from low-income backgrounds, and for helping mature students to do part-time courses is being axed. As the hon. Member for Winchester said, Aimhigher, the premier programme for widening participation, has been abolished. As Labour Members have said, the education maintenance allowance, which helps low income students, will stop in January. The widening participation premium that is paid to universities to help them recruit and retain those from disadvantaged backgrounds is expected to be cut.

[Elizabeth Truss]

Is it not the case that under the previous Government, only 19% of the lowest-income households contained students who went on to university? That is the record of the previous Government.

[Mr Thomas]

With all due respect to the hon. Lady, she should look at the figures. There was a 30% increase in people from low-income households going to university.

In the last week or two, even the Government have begun to recognise that high fees will put off students. As the hon. Member for East Antrim said, by proposing a national scholarship scheme for children who are entitled to free school meals, the Government are at last admitting that high fees will put off students from low-income families. It would have been nice to have had a little more detail from the Secretary of State on how that would work, but he could not offer us any.

There are people watching the Liberal Democrat contortions who think that we have been watching the first pantomime of the season, with the Secretary of State for Business as the Widow Twankey of the Government, and the Deputy Prime Minister as the servant boy Buttons, frantically rushing around trying to please his new master. I am not going to go down that path, however, because there are only two certainties for the Liberal Democrats. The truth is that they are all playing the back end of the horse, and no—no one is behind them!

I recognise that, for Liberal Democrat Ministers, the question of student finance is very finely judged. For those tortured souls, the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), the Minister of State, Department for Education, the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather) and the Minister for Equalities, the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), the nub of the principle that they are grappling with tonight is a tough one: “If I keep my ministerial Mondeo, will I lose my seat?”

When no G8 or OECD country other than Romania is cutting back higher education, it is clear that Opposition Members have to speak for all those people across the nation who recognise the damage that these proposals will do to our universities and the impact that they will have on the economic, social and cultural future of our country. More than 75% of students will end up paying more under these proposals than is currently the case, and graduates earning middle incomes at the age of 25 will pay the most, including those who want to be teachers, engineers and police officers: ordinary working people and families wanting a better future for their children, and young people dreaming great hopes—the very people the Secretary of State now turns his back on. Is it not clear tonight that those families and young people, whether they are on low incomes now or whether they will be on low or middle incomes when they graduate, are being let down by the parties in the coalition?

Tonight, Opposition Members speak for ordinary working people. We speak for Britain’s middle class. We will speak for those on low incomes in every constituency, and for all those who are outraged by this attack on the ambitions and aspirations of the brightest and best of Britain’s next generation. An abstention tonight is not enough. I urge the House to reject these proposals.