William Hague: Tories ‘haven’t ruled out tuition fees rise’

The Tories have not ruled out increasing tuition fees above the current maximum of £9,000 a year, William Hague has said.

The coalition presided over a rise in university tuition fees from around £3,000 a year to a maximum of £9,000 in 2012.

Asked on BBC One’s Sunday Politics, if the Tories would seek to raise fees or not, Mr Hague replied: “We’ll continue to act in the interest of universities prospering and of record numbers of students going to university, which is what we have achieved against all predictions and forecasts over the last five years.”

Told the party had not ruled out an increase in the next parliament, Mr Hague said: “We haven’t ruled that out but scare stories about what may happen to such fees are really, as I say, just designed to scare people ahead of the election.”

Mr Hague’s remarks followed Nick Clegg’s refusal to answer on five occasions – under questioning from Labour’s Yvette Cooper – if he would rule out an increase in fees.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, Mr Clegg said: “Never mind a £9,000 limit, Lord Browne – the report commissioned by the Labour Party, endorsed by the Conservatives – said there should be no upper limit whatsoever and then to add insult to injury the Labour Party basically left no money at all so clearly something had to give.”

Speaking about tuition fees, Ed Miliband on Sunday said he wanted to cut fees to under £6,000.

During a visit to Worcester, Mr Miliband said: “I would like to get tuition fees down further. I would like to do better than £6,000. But, the reason we said £6,000 is we know we can deliver and we have shown where the money is coming from.”