Lib Dems focus on student vote
Liberal Democrat president Simon Hughes said the student vote will be crucial to deciding 27 key seats on May 5th and claimed student voters were swinging to the Lib Dems.
Mr Hughes said: “There is increasing interest among students on issues such as fees and Iraq – and all the polls show we’re their party of choice.”
“It’s not just students who are raising the issue of tuition fees, it’s their parents as well, because they’re going to be picking up the bills. It’s playing very strongly with people,” he added.
The Liberal Democrats took a riverboat cruise down the River Thames with a party of students to promote their policy on tuition fees.
According to Mr Hughes, if the student vote in the 27 student constituencies identified swings over to the Liberal Democrats they will take the seat.
Among the prominent MPs under threat from the student vote by the Lib Dems estimations are home secretary Charles Clarke in Norwich South, shadow chancellor Oliver Letwin in Dorset West and shadow home secretary David Davis in Haltemprice and Howden. As education secretary, Mr Clarke pushed through the proposals to increase tuition fees.
The Liberal Democrats propose replacing the revenue from tuition fees by introducing a higher rate of taxation for people earning over £100,000 per year. Mr Hughes insisted that students going on to earn high salaries would pay taxpayers back through higher taxes.
The Lib Dems Treasury spokesperson, Vince Cable, added: “Access to university is going to be determined by people’s ability to pay. And we’re adding enormously to debt at a time when personal debt is becoming a very big issue, with the level of debt becoming ever more precarious.”
The Conservatives say they will scrap tuition fees and charge a higher rate of interest on student loans, while Labour intends to increase tuition fees to a maximum of £3,000 per year and introduce better grants and bursaries for less well-off students.
