Polly Toynbee’s article fails to convince this reader (Keir Starmer is right to U-turn on tuition fees. The funds will be better spent elsewhere, 4 May). When the Tories committed to cutting spending on higher education through increasing tuition fees, why did they not use some of the money saved to increase spending on further education (technical and vocational education) and nursery education? In fact, they did the reverse, starving further education colleges of funding and closing Sure Start centres. The Tories made it quite clear that increasing tuition fees was part of a package of measures to reduce central government spending, not to redistribute education spending, where it could be better used.
This Labour party appears, through its public announcements, committed to continue this government’s public sector austerity measures. Where will the money come from to fund the spending increases they propose? “Efficiency improvements” – the usual cry of politicians making policy commitments when they don’t have the funding to finance them.
