Labour made a “terrible mistake” by pushing young people to enter higher education without an ambitious plan for those who would not go to university, according to Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham.
Andy Burnham regrets the lack of ambition for people who do not go to university (Image: Getty)
The Cambridge-educated former Labour cabinet minister warned this has had “serious consequences” as he blasted the “snobbery” which he claims is “riddled” throughout the education system in England.
He is concerned that people in Britain grow up in two separate “worlds”, saying: “You’re on the university route or you’re not on the university route.”
Then-PM Tony Blair set the “target of 50 per cent of young adults going into higher education” in September 1999 in a landmark speech. Higher education can be provided in non-university settings but there is widespread concern that young people feel pressured to become graduates.
Speaking candidly at a Centre for Social Justice event, Mr Burnham regretted there was not a similar focus on the futures of young people who will not go to university.
“It was a real terrible mistake actually, with quite serious consequences,” he said.
Condemning the “snobbery at the heart” of education in England, he attacked “this sense that the university route is the be all and end all”.
The most recent figures show 48.6 per cent of young people in England attend higher education by the age of 25, with 43.4 per cent studying for an undergraduate degree.
Ed Davies of the Centre for Social Justice said: “The current push to increase university numbers is leaving too many young people with little more than a useless qualification and a bagful of debt.
“Too often the dichotomy is not perceived as academic v. technical education, but academic v. second class. Every attempt to promote technical and vocational skills in UK education ends up demoting them as secondary to an academic education.
“While better apprenticeships, T levels, and BTECs are all useful parts of the system, real change will only happen when technical routes are given the same esteem from age 14 onwards as happens in some other countries in Europe.”
Raising the prestige of apprenticeships so they will be an attractive option for young people has been a challenge for successive governments.
Official statistics show a significant decline in people starting this form of training in recent years.
In 2015-16, 285,300 people under-25 in England started an apprenticeship. But in 2022-23, just 176,500 started one.
Despite the prospect of paying tuition fees and the challenge of student debt, many young people have the ambition of a university education.
Nearly 1.4million UK students were studying for a first degree at a British university in 2021-22.
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Labour MP Rosie Duffield resigns as she slams Keir Starmer’s ‘cruel’ winter fuel axe
Rosie Duffield has resigned as a Labour MP citing the party’s “cruel and unnecessary policies” in a bitter blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In doing so, Duffield, 53, becomes the fastest MP to resign following a general election victory in history.
A Labour MP has resigned citing Keir Starmer’s freebie row and his ‘cruel’ policies. (Image: Getty)
In a lengthy resignation letter, Ms Duffield pointed to the controversy over freebies in addition to the removal of the winter fuel allowance and failure to remove the two-child benefit cap as the reasons for her decision.
Ms Duffield said: “You repeat often that you will make the ‘tough decisions’ and that the country is ‘all in this together.’ But those decisions do not directly affect any of us in parliament.
“They are cruel and unnecessary and affect hundreds and thousands of our poorest, most vulnerable constituents.”
Ms Duffield also pointed towards the Prime Minister’s “heavy-handed” management style whilst criticising him for failing to show “what most experienced backbenchers would recognise as true or inspiring leadership.”
The accusations of heavy-handedness are not new, with the prime minister being criticised by some for unnecessarily removing the Labour whip from six MPs who voted to remove the two-child benefit cap, a vote Labour won convincingly anyway.
He was also criticised after hastily suspending a Labour candidate during the general election for placing a bet against himself- a common tradition for aspiring MPs.
The row which has engulfed the Labour Party this week over senior MPs’ acceptance of luxury gifts seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back for Ms Duffield who has served as MP for Canterbury since 2017.
She said: “The sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice are off the scale. I am so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once-proud party.
Rosie Duffield has been a backbench MP since 2017. (Image: Getty)
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of these people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister.
“Forcing a vote to make many older people iller and colder while you and your favourite colleagues enjoy free family trips to events most people would have to save hard for — why are you not showing even the slightest bit of embarrassment?”
It emerged on Friday that Keir Starmer had accepted more than £30,000 of designer clothes by Labour peer Lord Alli – a figure higher than many people’s yearly income.
The revelations came on the back of controversy over Angela Rayner’s acceptance of Lord Alli’s New York penthouse for a holiday, Bridget Phillipson’s acceptance of a range of hospitality tickets and Lucy Powell’s extravagant trips to huge sporting events.
Angela Rayner is one of a host of senior Labour MPs to have received luxury gifts. (Image: Getty)
Ms Duffield is set to be prepared for a Labour backlash following her decision. She will now sit as an independent candidate in the House of Commons.
According to Political Correspondent for Politics Joe Ava Santina, at least one Labour MP was pleased with Duffield’s decision texting: “Good Riddance.”
Duffield has been a long-time critic of Labour’s policy on women and is a close friend of J K Rowling who has also been vocal in her views.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Duffield said: “With my [gender critical] views, all I wanted was for those views to be taken seriously and discussed and I think as a movement the Labour Party has shifted and we are talking about those things now.”
Ms Duffield has apologised to her constituents who less than three months ago re-elected her as a Labour candidate.
She said: “I never wanted to have to make this decision and I am deeply sorry that the Labour Party is not the Labour Party that I signed up to represent but the Labour Party now does not seem to represent the values that I have always had that haven’t changed.
“I am still someone with Labour values and my constituents know that those are still the causes that I will champion and I still very firmly believe in social justice and the green agenda and all the other things that chime particularly [in my] constituency, but I can’t pretend any more that the Labour Party represents me or them.”
