And he’s wrong about poor pupils
HIGH tuition fees do not deter workingclass youngsters from going to university, Labour said yesterday.
Angela Rayner directly contradicted party leader Jeremy Corbyn who has repeatedly claimed the charges are putting off disadvantaged young people.
Asked if this was so, the party’s education spokesman told BBC TV: ‘I don’t believe that that’s the case actually, but I do believe that many working-class and part-time and older mature students are actually leaving university.
‘More students are going into university but there’s record levels of students that are actually having to leave university before they’ve finished their qualification.
‘That’s because of the Government’s policies. They’ve done away with maintenance grants, they’ve increased the percentage rates of loans, and they’ve lowered the threshold for incomes so that people are paying more early on.’
Last night it emerged ministers were considering increasing the £21,000 graduate salary cap which triggers student loan repayments and to link it with inflation or earnings.
It comes amid suggestions the 6.1 per cent interest rate on student loans could be also cut to make the system fairer.
Just last week, Mr Corbyn told anti-austerity protesters outside Parliament that ‘fewer working-class young people’ were ‘applying to university’ due to student debt.
Jo Johnson, the universities minister, tweeted back: ‘Actually, no. Disadvantaged young people now more than 40 per cent more likely to go to university than they were in 2009/10.’
The BBC yesterday reported students from all backgrounds were more likely to go to university than ever – including the poorest.
Using different methods of identifying disadvantaged students – including being eligible for free school meals, living in areas where few people go to university and measures of multiple deprivation – all showed the same pattern of increases.
Luke Hall, Conservative MP for Thornbury and Yate, said: ‘Even Jeremy Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet know what he says about people going to university isn’t true.