Badenoch criticised for ‘nonsensical’ plan to cut student numbers by 100,000 – UK politics live | Politics

‘Unreliable’ is also a driver for labour, and the Liberal Democrat returns to Kemi Badenoch’s proposed economic “golden rule” – that at least half of all the money a Tory government saves from cuts will be used for deficit reduction. (Gordon Brown was also there “Golden Rule”But his was different.) donna ferguson Here are the details of the Badenoch offer.

A. Labor spokesman in question:

Kemi Badenoch has a brass neck. It’s surprising that his last speech didn’t include an apology for the conservatives who are still crashing the economy…

The Tories’ fantasy public spending ‘savings’ were made on the back of the same fag package written by Nigel Farage.

And one Liberal Democrat spokesman in question:

The idea that people will now trust the conservative party with the economy is laughable. From nearly crashing our economy to leaving public services on their knees, conservatives have shown that their economics are almost as bad as their writing.

The Conservatives are proposing to cut the number of students going to university so they could save £3 billion a year, which they could spend on apprenticeships. This would double the apprenticeship budget.

In his speech, Kemi Badenoch Will says he knows the value of apprenticeships from personal experience. He will say:

One in three graduates see no economic return and each year taxpayers write off over £7bn in unpaid student loans.

Money, wasted talent.

A rigged system that promotes low-quality courses means people don’t get high-quality apprenticeships that lead to real jobs.

This is personal for me.

Many people know that I have two degrees.

One is engineering. In a law.

But I can’t remember how to do parallel integration.

I remember how to fix a broken computer.

I learned on apprenticeship.

We need more apprenticeships.

I was working with adults.

I was paying my own way.

And it gave me confidence in a way that my college degrees never did.

And unlike my later college degree, in my early 30s I was still paying off my debts.

Apprenticeship spending is popular with voters. One reason for this Keir Starmer He also used his party conference speech to announce a tilt in higher and further education policy, giving greater priority to apprenticeships.

Labor says the Tories have no credibility on this issue. This is what the party said about the overnight briefing on the Badenoch Plan. A Labor spokesman said:

Kemi Badenoch’s words are not worth the paper they write on. Under the Tories, apprenticeship starts and completes have collapsed, and instead of supporting universities and investing in education for the public good, students are treated as political pawns.

This Labor Government has changed course. We have stabilized university funding and opened up access to apprenticeships for thousands of young people, with increases in starts confirmed last year.

Keir Starmer He is visiting India. While speaking to reporters on the flight to Mumbai, he had time to take a swipe at Robert Jenrick.

Here are some pictures from Starmer Trip.

Good morning. Kemi Badenoch giving his first keynote speech as leader to a conservative party conference. There are many people who assume it will be the last one.

(He spoke on Sunday about his plan to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. [ECHR]but the Wednesday Speech Closing Conference is always Biggie.)

The Tories face an existential challenge from Reformation England. While Badenoch will seek to differentiate the party from Reformation England, mainly emphasizing its commitment to fiscal responsibility and reducing public spending, his main rival, Robert Jenrick, appears to be taking the opposite approach – in fact, he is embracing Nigel Farage’s Outlook wholesale.

In his speech today, Badenoch will announce a new economic “golden rule”, which he will present as evidence that a conservative government will reduce government borrowing. It’s a policy the Tories might have adopted under David Cameron and George Osborne. But far more interesting is how, in many areas, Badenoch is trampling all over Cameron-era conservatism. We saw this, as Michael Heseltine noted yesterday, in the climate change Bill passed by Gordon Brown (essentially the Cameron legislation) and his decision to propose cutting aid spending to its lowest level on record.

And in his speech today, Badenoch will bury another Cameron policy. His government lifted the cap on the number of students allowed to attend Unsersity, which opened higher education to more young people and led to the university’s expansion. Today Badenoch will propose bringing it back and reducing the number of people going to university by around 100,000 a year.

In a newsletter explaining why conservative party says:

While many young people still benefit from university, too many are pushed towards a single degree for success, but evidence suggests that too much leads to poor job prospects and high debt.

The analysis made by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that “total return [on going to university] will be negative For around 30% of both men and women” Many graduates earn that little, never fully repaying their student loans, costing the taxpayer over £7bn Only in England with unpaid debts every year …

We will protect the interests of taxpayers and students by placing limits on funded courses that consistently lead to poor postgraduate outcomes. We will introduce controls over student numbers in certain subject groups, so the taxpayer is not left with subsidized courses leading to low postgraduate earnings or limited career prospects…

Number controls apply to every subject group, such as creative arts, languages ​​or sports science, and are gradually reduced in the subject groups where we see the biggest losses for taxpayers and students. This would reduce the annual number of university places by around 100,000 and save over £3bn in loan repayment losses written off each year as public charges.

The Tories say they will use the savings to double apprenticeship funding.

. University and College Union he described it as “economically illiterate.” In a statement, UCU General Secretary Jo Grady said:

This is an economically illiterate policy; No country has grown by cutting university places. Nonsensical ideas like this are no surprise from the party that’s crashing the economy, and fortunately, since the Tories aren’t going to win an election any time soon, they have no hope of being enacted.

The way to tackle the student debt burden is through a return to public finance, which could be paid for through a wealth tax, thus contributing more to those who benefit most from obtaining a degree.

Timeline of events at the Conservative Conference.

10:00: Party deputy leader Matt Vickers is hosting a panel on the 2026 local elections.

10.30: Shadow Welsh Secretary Mims Davies, Shadow Scottish Secretary Andrew Bowie and Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Alex Burghart speak on a panel about England’s governance.

11.15: Kemi Badenoch gives her speech.

Also today, Keir Starmer is on a visit to India. And this morning Scottish First Minister John Swinney is holding a press conference to mark the publication of an article about independence.

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