Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, MP, has succeeded in forcing
a binding vote on the Government’s latest tuition fees rise to
the floor of the Commons tomorrow.
The vote was secured by providing Opposition time and tabling a
special motion to revoke the Regulations raising the cap on
top-up fees, instead of the usual practice of a non-binding
motion criticising the Government on a policy issue.
The DUP, whose MPs the Tories rely on for their majority, have
previously voted against top up fees in Parliament and campaigned
against them in elections, and a number of Tory MPs rebelled when
they were introduced – including Brexit Secretary, .
Ministers had brought in the latest rise, up to £1,000 extra
costs over the course of an undergraduate degree, through
so-called ‘statutory instruments’, rather than primary
legislation. They had avoided a previous Commons vote by
dissolving Parliament before the debate could be held, and then
refusing to allow time after the election, in defiance of
parliamentary convention.
The Government had also failed to meet previous commitments that
the repayment threshold – the income at which graduates must
start to repay their student debt – would rise with inflation,
despite fees going up.
Opposing a statutory instrument normally requires a parliamentary
process known as ‘laying a prayer’, in which an Early Day Motion
is tabled ‘humbly praying that Her Majesty revoke’ the proposed
legislation and Ministers by convention allow a vote. In this
instance, however, Labour has established that it is in order to
table a combined motion of revocation as an Opposition motion,
scheduling a debate and vote in Opposition time.
Commenting, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary,
MP, said:
“The Tories are ripping up the rules of democracy in their
desperation to cling to power. They’re not taking back control,
they’re trying to take it away.
“They won’t even trust their own MPs to back their latest hike in
student fees, so they’re trying to stop us voting on it at all.
They may be afraid of debating this issue but we aren’t, so we
will now provide the time and the vote using Opposition time.
“This latest tuition fee rise could cost students up to a
thousand pounds more over the course of their degree, yet they
are refusing to keep their promise to graduates that the
repayment level would go up with inflation. Every MP who votes
against us on Wednesday will have to answer to the people they
represent if they back ever increasing student fees and worsening
repayment terms for graduates.
“In stark contrast, the next Labour government will abolish
tuition fees entirely and restore maintenance grants.”
