Keir Starmer criticised for tuition fees U-turn after admitting he couldn't afford to go today

The Labour leader claimed his dream of attending would now be “stopped cold in its tracks”.

Sir Keir Starmer has been criticised for U-turning on his pledge to axe tuition fees despite admitting he couldn’t afford to go today.

The Labour leader, who attended Leeds University then Oxford, claimed the current economic situation would have stopped him going to university. Blaming the Tories, Mr Starmer hinted at support for students if Labour win the next election, but has claimed the “different financial situation” means he can no longer support scrapping tuition fees.

He has now been criticised by the SNP, who accused Labour of denying students in England the opportunity to go to university.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (left) and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar during a visit to the Lind and Lime distillery in Leith. Picture: Lesley Martin/PA Wire

SNP MSP for Glasgow Kelvin, Kaukab Stewart, said: "Keir Starmer acknowledges that the cost of going to university is a barrier to many young people, but fails to commit to abolishing tuition fees and delivering free higher education, as the SNP Scottish Government continues to do.

“Labour's tuition fees U-turn is denying many talented young people south of the border the opportunity to go to university, and will plunge those who do attend into extraordinary levels of debt.

“In Scotland, people of all ages are benefiting from an SNP Scottish Government that is taking action to support them through the Westminster-made cost-of-living crisis, including enabling young people to reach their full potential.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the Labour leader defended his approach as he was challenged over the U-turn.

Sir Keir told LBC: “I do think the current scheme is unfair and ineffective and that is why we will change it, so the current scheme will be changed by the incoming Labour government and we will set out our plans.

"But there's no getting away from the fact that in the intervening years, the last two or three years, huge damage has been done to our economy. And we therefore cannot make funding commitments that we can't show where the funding is coming from”.

Sir Keir then promised to change things, but refused to elaborate on the specifics of how Labour would help students.

He said: "If you look at what [former prime minister] Liz Truss did she experimented with unfunded commitments, in her case, it was tax breaks for the wealthy, and you saw the impact on the economy.

"I am not going to pretend that there isn't huge damage to the economy and that has meant that some of the things that an incoming Labour government would want to do we are not going to be able to do in the way we would want.

"But it doesn't mean we are going to leave the current system as it is, because we want a fairer deal for students, a more effective deal for students and for universities."

Pressed again what Labour's plans might be, Sir Keir said: "We are working up our proposals on that and I will fully come back and talk them through when we got them." Tuition fees were first introduced in England under Labour at the maximum price of £1,000 a year, before being raised during the coalition.