"Access to Higher Education Should be based on Ability not Ability to Pay"

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 20th Oct 2003

Greg Mulholland, Leeds North West Parliamentary Spokesperson accompanied Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield and member of the Education and Skills Select Committee at a demonstration against Tuition fees at Leeds University on Friday 17th Oct. Paul and Greg were joined by members of the Leeds University Liberal Democrat Society.

Greg, who is councillor for Headingley ward which has the largest proportion of students of any electoral ward in the country had previously spoken at the launch of Leeds Against Fees campaign and Paul was speaking at the rally on behalf of the Liberal Democrats.

As a member of the Select Committee Paul has twice broken from his Labour and Conservative colleagues to opposing Tuition Fees in 2002 and Top Up Fees in 2003.

Paul Holmes said "I grew up in Sheffield and went to York University - the first member of my family ever to go to university. If I had been faced with Fees and the ?21,000 of debt Charles Clarke has admitted students will face under his latest proposals, then I would never have had that life changing opportunity."

Liberal Democrats reject Labour plans to plunge students into massive debt and create a two tier system of Higher Education in which access is based upon wealth rather than ability and also reject the badly drawn up and poorly costed Conservative plans to abolish fees by denying access to University to 450,000 potential students. Liberal Democrats would abolish tuition and top up taxes on students, reintroduce grants of ?2,000 per year and invest in higher education to rectify decades of underfunding. This would be paid for by increasing the higher rate of income tax on the 1% of the population who earn over ?100,000 (82% of whom are university graduates).

Paul Holmes MP said: "The prospect of increased tuition fees and higher student debt will put off poor students who are considering going into higher education" and he adds "access to higher education should be based on ability not ability to pay".

And Greg Mulholland said, "The Government's proposals risk making university a choice only for the better off. Britain should be investing in all our young people, not a select few".

Greg adds, "The Liberal Democrats are leading the campaign against tuition fees and top-up fees nationally ad here in Leeds I will be campaigning alongside the students to fight to scrap fees and make university accessible to all."

Sign the petition against tuition and top-up fees at www.scraptuitionfees.com.

For more information on the Leeds v Fees campaign, go to www.luuonline.com/leedsagainstfees.

The Leeds University Liberal Democrat group can be contacted at leedsunilibdems@yahoo.co.uk.