Free tuition can’t go on, warns Cable

fREE access to university education is ‘not sustainable’ in Scotland, according to new Lib Dem leader Vince Cable.

Speaking on his first visit north of the Border since succeeding Tim farron, Mr Cable said abolishing fees has damaged both universities and colleges.

He also pointed out that the proportion of pupils from deprived backgrounds going to university has increased in England since fees were introduced – and is much higher than in Scotland.

But the Scottish Government said his previous support for fees in England as part of the Coalition Government was ‘so popular with students that he lost his seat’ in the 2015 general election.

Mr Cable also yesterday leapt to the defence of two of his Scottish MPs – his deputy Jo Swinson and Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine – who face growing questions about their election spending by insisting that ‘there is no question of impropriety’.

His comments about fees come despite the Scottish Lib Dems continuing to support free tuition.

Speaking in Edinburgh, Mr Cable, a former Business Secretary in the Coalition Government, said his understanding of ‘the way the Scottish tuition fee story has played out’ is that the Scottish Government has had to ‘raid the budgets of further education colleges’ in order to fund universities, which he described as ‘perverse and socially damaging’.

He added: ‘It is clear that the system that operates here, although it had a certain populist appeal at the time, clearly isn’t sustainable.’

Responding to Mr Cable’s comments about tuition fees, a spokesman for Education Minister ShirleyAnne Somerville said: ‘Vince Cable’s blundering comments show he clearly doesn’t know the first thing about education in Scotland.

‘The reality is the number of students from Scotland’s most deprived areas accepted to university – as well as the overall number of Scottish students getting a place at a Scottish university – are both at record high levels.

‘As the Cabinet Minister in the Tory-led Government, Vince Cable was the architect of the tuition fees disaster in England – and the policy proved so popular with students he lost his seat.’