“Support the abolition of tuition fees”

Facts

In Sir Keir Starmer’s 2020 Labour leadership manifesto he pledged to “Support the abolition of tuition fees”

Abolish Universal Credit & end the Tories’ cruel sanctions regime. Set a national goal for wellbeing to make health as important as GDP; invest in services to shift to a preventative approach. Defend our NHS. Support the abolition of tuition fees & invest in lifelong learning. pic.twitter.com/bdgfupUVhO

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) February 12, 2020

Starmer doubled down on this in 2021, telling young voters; “Tuition fees is a huge debt for young people that they carry with them for a very long time, and that’s why we rightly committed at the last election to get rid of tuition fees.”

Starmer speaking in 2021 when asked if he supports abolishing tuition fees:

'It's a huge debt for young people that they carry around for a long time, and that's why we rightly committed at the last election to get rid of tuition fees' https://t.co/7NvhJulTsb pic.twitter.com/BhMe9RUfYK

— j (@jrc1921) May 1, 2023

In May 2023 he told the BBC; “We are likely to move on from that commitment, because we do find ourselves in a different financial situation.”

Verdict

This is undoubtedly a broken pledge. But he provided an economic rationale for the policy change so it can’t be stated definitively that the original pledge was insincere. 

We emailed Sir Keir Starmer’s office and Labour offering them the chance to respond. We received no response.