Evan Harris: “If you want to get rid of fees vote more Lib Dems into power”

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Former Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris has made the extraordinary claim that to get rid of fees "the answer is to vote more liberal democrats into power".

Former Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris made the extraordinary claim on Radio Five last night that:

“If you want to get rid of tuition fees, the answer is to vote more liberal democrats into power, not less, because the only way… If you want to get rid of tuition fees realistically the only way to do it…

“If students want to get rid of tuition fees it’s more Liberal Democrats they need, not Tory and Labour.”

This, despite the fact that it was only because of Liberal Democrat MPs that last night’s votes on tuition fees – trebling the cap to £9,000 and raising the lower limit to £6,000 – passed, by a majority of 21. Harris was debating Left Foot Forward’s Will Straw and leading Conservative blogger Shane Greer on the Tony Livesey show.

Listen to it:

Here is the roll of shame of the 34 Lib Dem MPs who broke their pledge by failing to vote against the government:

Danny Alexander
Norman Baker
Sir Alan Beith
Gordon Birtwistle
Tom Brake
Jeremy Browne
Malcolm Bruce
Paul Burstow
Lorely Burt*
Vincent Cable
Alistair Carmichael
Nick Clegg
Edward Davey
Lynne Featherstone
Don Foster
Stephen Gilbert
Duncan Hames
Nick Harvey
David Heath
John Hemming
Simon Hughes*
Mark Hunter
Norman Lamb
David Laws
Michael Moore
Tessa Munt*
Sir Robert Smith*
Andrew Stunell
Jo Swinson
Sarah Teather
John Thurso*
David Ward
Steve Webb
Stephen Williams*

* abstained – still a broken pledge. Chris Huhne and Martin Horwood were both absent in Cancun; only 21 of the party’s 57 MPs voted against the fees rise.

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73 Responses to “Evan Harris: “If you want to get rid of fees vote more Lib Dems into power””

  1. Gary Hughes

    Utterly bizarre: “@kiramadeira: My head nearly exploded reading this http://bit.ly/hAlZmb Breathtaking”

  2. gemma tumelty

    RT @gary_hughes: Utterly bizarre: “@kiramadeira: My head nearly exploded reading this http://bit.ly/hAlZmb Breathtaking”

  3. Mr. Sensible

    Evan, on the issue of the public finances, I read in the Guardian last week that a study in to the government’s proposals:
    “… claims that the changes – which will also see state funding for university teaching cut by 80% by 2014-15 – will leave taxpayers worse off because the government will have to borrow more to fund higher loans and pick up a bigger bill for debts that are written off after 30 years. Write-off costs are likely to rise from 27.5p in the pound to at least 36p, it estimates.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/30/tuition-fees-study-government-progressive?CMP=EMCGT_301110&amp

  4. Tom Harris

    Priceless! @DrEvanHarris: "If you want to get rid of fees vote more LibDems into power!" http://bit.ly/hAlZmb (via @iain_31)

  5. Chris Phillips

    THE GREEN PARTY is the ONLY NATIONAL party, as far as I know, that wants to abolish fees!

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