Keir Starmer is right to U-turn on tuition fees. The funds will be better spent elsewhere

‘Universities should be expanding, but not for reasons of income alone’: students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. Photograph: Imagedoc/Alamy

There’s been a lot less hoo-ha about Labour’s retreat on abolishing tuition fees than some expected. Large numbers, even among students themselves, think paying for their own degrees is fair: YouGov yesterday found 50% of them pro-fees with only 30% wanting the public to pay through general taxation.

Turkeys voting for Christmas? One higher education expert suggests to me, “Students tend to be progressive,” and there is nothing very progressive in these hard times about spending billions on those already destined to be higher earners.