Student dig No firm answers on tuition fees

SIR Keir Starmer has refused to stand by his promise to scrap tuition fees, citing the “damage that has been done” to the economy.

The Labour leader previously said he would maintain Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to axe fees for all university students. But yesterday he declined to back the policy, saying instead that he will give a “cast-iron guarantee” that all manifesto pledges would be “fully funded” ahead of the next election.

During the Labour leadership contest in early 2020, Sir Keir said: “Labour must stand by its commitment to end the national scandal of spiralling student debt and abolish tuition fees.”

When asked yesterday whether he stands by the policy, he didn’t write it off, but said: “I have to be honest about it, the damage that’s been done to our economy means that we are going to have to cost everything as we go into the election.”

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, with rivet guns used to make aircraft wings during their visit to Here East, an innovation and technology campus at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London