Local MSP for the Linlithgow Constituency Fiona Hyslop who was the Scottish Government Minister, who abolished tuition fees for students in Scotland, has called out Labour’s hypocrisy and makes clear that only the SNP will protect free tuition fees for students in West Lothian.
Fiona said “Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar ,knowing that this is an incredibly popular SNP Government policy, is seeking to provide assurances that they wouldn’t reverse this policy if elected but this comes hard on the heels of Labour’s reversal of a number of policies when in power of Winter Fuel payment for pensioners and failure to support the WASPI women’s compensation.”
She commented “It was the Labour Party which first introduced fees back in 1998, imposed back-door university tuition fees in Scotland which meant you couldn’t graduate unless you paid fees with the graduate endowment fee, and then voted against the abolition of the university fee by the SNP in 2008 when I as then Education Cabinet Secretary, took the Bill through Parliament.”
Commenting further Fiona said:
“This is clear hypocrisy from the Labour Party. History has shown that Labour cannot be trusted on tuition fees, whether in Scotland, England or Wales – tuition fees have gone up under Labour governments.
“As the Government Minister who abolished the Graduate Endowment Fee, abolishing an unfair education tax and making higher education free in Scotland, I am proud to see that the Scottish Government are committed to keeping university free for students in Scotland.
“Why should voters trust the Labour party on tuition fees, after broken promises on winter fuel payments and compensation for WASPI women.
“Under the SNP, we have record numbers of Scottish students securing places at our universities and I am proud to have been part of making this possible for students across Scotland with 37,805 benefitting from this policy last year.”
ENDS