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Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband has said that Labour wants to give voters a ¡°radical offer¡± on tuition fees at the next election, a possible hint that the party could replace tuition fees with a graduate tax.

¡°Young people feel they have no control because they are going to get into mountains of debt if they go to university,¡± he said yesterday during an appearance on programme.

¡°We do want a radical offer on tuition fees because the future of our young people - something totally absent from [last week¡¯s] Budget - is a massive issue that our country faces,¡± he added.

In December last year, Liam Byrne, the shadow universities, science and skills minister, said that Labour¡¯s election manifesto for 2015 could include a ¡°long-term shift to a graduate tax¡±. ?

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Currently, Labour policy is to cut tuition fees from a maximum of ?9,000 a year to ?6,000, although Mr Byrne said at the time that this ¡°is what we would do if we were in government today¡±.

The National Union of Students has backed a graduate tax in the past, but the vice-chancellors¡¯ body Universities UK has said that it could not support such a policy.

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Mr Miliband argued for a graduate tax and an end to fees when campaigning to become Labour leader in 2010.

david.matthews@tsleducation.com