"SCRAP TUITION FEES" POSTER UNVEILED

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 20th Apr 2005

Liberal Democrat President, Simon Hughes, joined David Rendel in Newbury today to unveil a poster campaign promoting the abolition of university tuition and top-up fees.

David Rendel is the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Higher Education. He lead the fight against top-up fees in the House of Commons, while Conservative MPs backed the Government in key votes in the Education Select Committee.

The 2001 census found that there are 3,768 students in the Newbury Constituency. Independent analysis by the BBC and by the Institute of Fiscal Studies shows that the Liberal Democrat policy of scrapping all tuition fees would result in much lower debt for students, while the Conservative policy of commercial interest rates on student loans would increase debt for the poorest students.

BBC Economics Correspondent, Evan Davis, says that Liberal Democrat policy "will sharply cut student debt." (BBC News at 10, 7 April 2005). The IFS says: "Debt on graduation would be lower under the Liberal Democrats… Indeed outstanding debt could go up under the Conservatives for low earners, even as they repay."