Corbyn drops proposal to scrap tuition fees

[dutchman]

Jeremy Corbyn has shelved a proposal to scrap university tuition fees, while he consults with the rest of the party — a process that risks diluting the radical programme he set out in the summer leadership race.

The new leader of the opposition said only weeks ago that he would raise £10bn through higher taxes in order to remove fees and restore student grants.

It was his first major policy statement and helped build support among young left-wingers. It would have been funded by either a 2.5 per cent rise in corporation tax or a 7 per cent rise increase in national insurance for those earning more than £50,000 a year.

But one member of the shadow cabinet said that the policy would now be consulted on more widely: “It’s like everything else from Jeremy’s leadership campaign, it doesn’t automatically become policy.”

That means that Labour’s formal policy on tuition fees has not changed since the run-up to the general election in May.

Labour’s back and forth approach to fees highlights the gulf between Mr Corbyn’s rhetoric during the leadership campaign and the reality of life as leader of the opposition.

The MP for Islington North has already been forced into declaring his full support for Britain staying in the EU.

He has abandoned plans to nationalise the “big six” energy companies, another highlight of his summer campaign.

He is also fighting overt hostility from his own MPs to his anti-Trident stance, with several shadow cabinet members criticising him for saying that he would never use Britain’s nuclear weapons if he were prime minister.

The only issue where he appears to brook no dissent is on his stance against the government’s austerity programme: Labour is likely to oppose almost all the cuts in the spending review.

But even John McDonnell, the new shadow chancellor, has promised that he will cut the deficit — even if his methods would be different to those of the current government.

[rebbonk]

Corbyn is nothing more than an Establishment puppet. He'll do exactly as he's told!