Starmer claims he could not afford university now due to Tory policies – UK politics live | Politics

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has rejected Keir Starmer’s claim that government policies would stop someone from his background being able to go to university today. (See 9.34am.)

As the Telegraph reports, Keegan told Times Radio this morning that loans and hardship funds were enabling “more and more people from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to university”.

She said:

Since 2010 you are now 86 per cent more likely to go to university if you are from a disadvantaged background.

Keegan, who left school herself at 16 to take up an apprenticeship, said she had “some sympathy” with what Starmer was saying because as a teenager she would have had concerns about racking up a large student debt.

But she said teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds were going to university, in large numbers, because of the support that was available. She said:

We have these grants in place, they have gone up this year, we have also got a hardship fund which we have increased by £276 million this year.

So if somebody is struggling, if they come from a background where they are struggling to afford that, the universities have bursaries, they have funds, they have hardship funds, and we have increased that by £276 million this year because we know there is a lot of pressure.

But many, many young people, many more than ever before, are going to university so it is a route that is accessible and it is accessible for everybody.

Jeremy Hunt has played down the prospect of pre-election tax cuts despite news that the public finances are in less bad shape than the government’s spending watchdog forecast in the spring budget, Larry Elliott reports.

The Scottish government has welcomed figures out this morning showing deaths from drug misuse down by 21% in 2022 compared with the previous years.

According to the figures from the National Records of Scotland, 1,051 people died from drug misuse last year – a decrease of 279 deaths compared with 2021. This is the lowest annual total since 2017.

However, Scotland still has the highest rate of deaths from drugs in Europe.

Commenting on the figures, Elena Whitham, the drugs and alcohol policy minister in the Scottish government, said:

My sympathy goes out to all those affected by the loss of a loved one through drugs.

While I am pleased to see that hundreds of families have been spared this agony and lives have been saved, every life lost is a tragedy and the number of deaths is still too high.

I will never underestimate the scale of the challenge we continue to face, including responding to new threats such as synthetic opioids and stimulant use. I can see that our work across Scotland, where we have already supported 300 grass-roots projects, including ‘Back on the Road’, is gathering pace, and I’m grateful to all those delivering vital services.

Good morning. We’ve had energy week, small boats week and NHS week. At the Downing Street lobby briefing yesterday the PM’s spokesperson was asked if this was education week (according to the No 10 news grid), and replied categorically that it wasn’t. But it certainly feels like it. Yesterday the Department for Education put out a story about childminding, and fielded a junior minister for the morning broadcast round. This morning Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, is in the radio studios, promoting an announcement about free schools. And on Thursday the GCSE results are out.

And Keir Starmer is getting in on the act too. In a statement released overnight, he criticises the government for increasing costs for students and claims that, if he were a young person today, because of his working class background he would not be able to afford to go to university. He says:

There wasn’t any spare money knocking around to fund me going to Leeds. I worked before I went and then got by on grants, as many young people do. I vividly remember carefully calculating rent, bills and food.

Going to Leeds to study was a turning point for me; it will be a deep betrayal if one of the legacies of this Tory government is university, apprenticeships and skills becoming the preserve of the wealthy.

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.

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.

Pippa Crerar has more on this here.

We will be hearing more from Starmer later. He is on a visit this morning, where he will record a pooled clip, and he is due to give an interview to James O’Brien on LBC at around 11am. According to Politico’s London Playbook, he is also recording a Q&A with BBC Newsbeat listeners which we will hear at some point.

The problem with Starmer’s claim about not being able to afford to go to university if he were a young person now is that it is probably not true. When the Labour government introduced tuition fees for universities, and the coalition government massively increased them, it was claimed that students from disadvantaged, debt-adverse families would be deterred from going. But (surprisingly, perhaps) that did not happen. Last year Ucas said university applications from disadvantaged areas were at record numbers.

Starmer’s parents were working class, but they were ambitious for him, he was a high-achieving pupil at a good school and he expressed an interest in a degree and a career where salaries can quite easily cover the cost of student loan repayments. It is hard to imagine that an 18-year-old Starmer leaving school this year would not be heading for university.

What is more interesting about Starmer’s statement is what it suggests about Labour policy. Starmer has abandoned the promise he made when running for Labour leader to abolish student tuition fees. But this statement implies that Labour will go into the next election with a generous offer on the table for students.

I will be covering Starmer’s LBC interview, and his other interventions, in full. Otherwise, as is usual for the middle of August, the news planning diary is largely empty, but something will probably turn up.

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