Keir Starmer put on spot by James O’Brien over another screeching Labour U-turn

Keir Starmer grilled over U-turn on free tuition fees

Sir Keir Starmer was grilled by left-wing radio presenter James O’Brien about Labour’s U-turn on free university tuition fees.

The Labour leader appeared on LBC after claiming he would not be able to afford to go to university if he was leaving school today due to the economic situation.

His comments suggest Labour could announce packages to help students with finance if they win the next election.

But Mr O’Brien put Sir Keir, who visited Worthing this morning to discuss the cost of living crisis, on the spot over why he backtracked on a pledge to scrap tuition fees made when he was running to be Labour leader in 2020.

The LBC presenter said: “I do remember a Labour leadership candidate called Keir Starmer pledging to abolish tuition fees just three years ago and what happened to that?”

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Sir Keir said: “Look I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.

“But there’s no getting away from the fact that in the intervening years, the last two or three years, huge damage has been done to our economy. And we therefore cannot make funding commitments that we can’t show where the funding is coming from.

“If you look at what Liz Truss did she experimented with unfunded commitments, in her case, it was tax breaks for the wealthy, and you saw the impact on the economy.

“I am not going to pretend that there isn’t huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want in the way that we would want.

“But it doesn’t mean we are going to leave the current system as it is, because we want a fairer deal for students, a more effective deal for students and for universities.”

Pressed again what Labour’s offer might be, Sir Keir said: “We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them.”

It comes after the Opposition leader said his “dream” of attending university would be stopped “cold in its tracks” if he were a school leaver now in comments reported by the Daily Telegraph.

He said: “That ambitious and successful students are making decisions about their next steps based on costs and their financial means should shame the Conservatives.

“Tory economic failure choking off the dreams of the next generation is a deep betrayal of aspirational Britain. Talent and aspiration should drive young people – not the affordability of rent, or soaring food prices.

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“I vividly remember the excitement of moving to Leeds to study law. It was a financial stretch then. If I were a student today, I wouldn’t be able to go.”

Sir Keir faced criticism in May after confirming the U-turn on abolishing tuition fees.

Referring to the cost-of-living crisis sparked by soaring inflation, he said at the time: “We are likely to move on from that commitment because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation.”

Tuition fees were first introduced under Labour by Sir Tony Blair at the maximum price of £1,000 a year.

Now fees are a maximum of £9,250 per year, with the current system introduced by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition in the face of severe opposition from students.

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