Labour Students under fire over public silence on party tuition fee U-turn

Labour Students has been urged to break its weeks of public silence on the party’s U-turn over university tuition fees, with left-wing student activists calling for the group to “proudly” reiterate its support for free education.

Chair Ben McGowan told LabourList in response that commenting was “impossible” until more detail emerged on Labour’s policy and the organisation held a vote on funding. He said it supported “removing financial barriers to education”.

Labour Students tight-lipped on new party stance

Abolishing tuition fees was Labour policy in the 2019 manifesto, and one of Starmer’s ten policy pledges when he ran for leader.

This February, National Labour Students Committee (NLSC) also passed a motion committing themselves to campaigning against tuition fees, and free education formed part of now-chair Ben McGowan’s election platform last year.

But at the beginning of May, leader Keir Starmer said Labour would “move on” from its pledge to abolish tuition fees, prompting criticism from voices on the left of the party, including Labour Students vice-chair Fabiha Askari.

Yet both Labour Students and McGowan have been notably tight-lipped over the U-turn ever since, neither condemning it in line with Labour Students’ stated stance or confirming a change in their own position.

The group’s first acknowledgement of the issue on Twitter came only a month after Starmer’s comments, and only saw it retweet a Times op-ed by Shadow Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson which backed “lower monthly repayments”.

Labour Students also retweeted its own secretary Jonathan Heywood’s comments on Phillipson’s article, with Heywood calling it “really positive forward movement” and saying he “could not be more supportive”. 

The group’s annual conference last weekend similarly passed with a flurry of tweets about panel events and speeches, but none explicitly referencing the party’s new position on fees. The event advert also did not mention the issue. 

Neither was there any explicit call for fee abolition in the amendments Labour Students’ recently proposed as part of the National Policy Forum (NPF), which is currently thrashing out the party’s programme in the run-up to the next general election, according to two committee sources. 

LabourList understands internal votes are due to be held soon on issues including tuition fees, however.

‘We should flag our flag proudly, no matter the frontbench position’

A spokesperson for Momentum-backed campaign group Socialist Future, which claims to have a majority on the committee, told LabourList: “We should fly our flag proudly on the mast, no matter the frontbench’s position.

 “The higher education system is totally broken; tweaks around the edges will not be sufficient. To make it crystal clear: Labour Students supports higher education free at the point of use, the abolition of tuition fees and reintroduction of maintenance grants for all UK students.”

McGowan told LabourList that despite recent comments by Starmer, there had been no official movement in the party’s policy on tuition fees.

“We’ve been working hard with the party to help build their vision to end the Tory’s broken tuition fees system. We believe the announcements from Bridget [Phillipson] are very positive but it would be impossible for us or anyone to fully comment on Labour’s tuition fee policy until we know what it entails.”

He said the organisation had also wanted to wait to hear members’ views at its conference.

“We absolutely support reducing and removing financial barriers to education and we know that the only way we achieve that is through delivering a Labour government.”

He said that the party’s NPF submission “ensures that a variety of policy options including free education remain on the table.”

Meanwhile Labour Students’ secretary Jonathan Heywood told LabourList the organisation did still back abolition, but also backed the party to “make the right choices in a tough fiscal environment”. He said students’ priority was “getting a Labour government”, and Phillipson had their backing in “getting those choices right”.

Chair hits back at ‘factional’ criticism

McGowan added: “While many of us have been working to rebuild Labour Students and give members a voice in our party it’s been disappointing to see others resort to obstructionism for the sake of factional gain.” 

He also appeared to criticise Momentum, adding; “I do find it an interesting sign that some groups clearly now have so little relevancy or purpose in the party that the best use of their time is briefing against student members and the intricacies of our committee meetings.

“I am really flattered that certain organisations have managed to scrape together some of their dwindling resources and some time between their Bring Back Jeremy meetings to attack a student member. But I think they’ll find their real enemies are the Tory government not people working flat out to get the possible future for students.”

A Socialist Future spokesperson said the chair’s personal opinions were “a matter for them”. 

Ruth Day, south-west rep on National Labour Students Committee and on the Momentum National Coordinating group, said that Labour should resist the “siren call of mild tweaks at the margins” and listen to the “democratic voice of its student wing” on a vote-winning issues.

Vice-chair Fabiha Askari also co-authored a piece last month for LabourList warning that the party’s new position could “alienate the next generation of would-be Labour voters”.

New Labour Students only founded last year

Differences in opinion within Labour Students even before Starmer’s comments could explain why it did not sign an open letter earlier this year backing fee abolition. More than 20 university Labour clubs and some, but not all, of the committee signed it.

The body itself, formally known as National Labour Students was only established with its first committee elections in September 2022. 

The previous Labour Students body had been abolished in 2019 by Labour’s previously left-dominated national executive committee. It followed the decision by a string of university Labour clubs to disaffiliate over concerns about the organisation’s internal democratic processes.