TIME FOR LIB DEMS TO COME CLEAN ON TUITION FEES
Published date : 16 May 2019
SNP CALLS FOR WILLIE RENNIE TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM VINCE CABLE
The SNP has called on Willie Rennie to come forward with a “clear and concrete statement” to distance his party from the UK Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, who has called for an end to free tuition in Scotland.
The veteran MP who took control of the Lib Dems in 2017 has previously described calls to scrap annual fees of over £9,000 for students in England as a “cheap populist gesture” – suggesting the Scottish Government’s policy of free education was “very perverse and socially damaging”.
Ahead of a Lib Dem debate on Scotland’s education system in Holyrood this week, member of the Education Committee and former teacher, Jenny Gilruth MSP, has now called on Willie Rennie to outline once and for all whether his party in Scotland backs the calls for Scottish students to be forced to pay for a university education.
Commenting, Jenny Gilruth MSP said:
“In 2010, the Lib Dems were all too happy to abandon their principles – teaming up with the Tories to inflict eye watering levels of debt on students in England.
“While Willie Rennie has tried to distance himself from the frankly humiliating track record of his colleagues at Westminster – it seems the party’s UK leader remains determined to impose hefty fees for Scottish students who want to go to university.
“Under the SNP’s watch, record numbers of Scots are being accepted to study at university with the number of students from our most deprived communities at historic levels too.
“It’s time for the Lib Dems in Holyrood to stop dodging the question and offer voters a clear and concrete statement that Vince Cable is wrong on tuition fees.”
ENDS
EDUCATION
