Sir Keir Starmer is facing a growing backlash over Labor’s decision to raise tuition fees for the first time in eight years, as he is accused of yet another policy U-turn.

The Prime Minister is under pressure after yesterday’s announcement that, from the start of the 2025/26 school year, tuition fees for Domestic undergraduates in England will reach £9,535 per year.

They had been frozen to the maximum £9,250 since 2017, and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told MPs it was necessary to “secure the future of higher education” amid financial challenges.

It comes as university leaders have warned of significant financial concerns resulting from the freezing of tuition fees paid by domestic students and falling numbers of international students.

However, Sir Keir campaigned for the Labor leadership in 2020, saying he would “support the abolition of tuition fees”.

The Tories pounced on the Prime Minister’s latest U-turn, which came days after the Budget raised taxes by £40 billion.

Since becoming Labor leader, he has reversed his position on issues ranging from tax to benefits to gender identity.

Conservative Party co-chair Nigel Huddleston told Sky News: “It worries me because it’s yet another example of what we see as a trend here, where Labor in opposition is saying one thing, then within government do another one, usually.” to the detriment of someone – in this case the students.

The Prime Minister is under pressure after yesterday’s announcement that, from the start of the 2025/26 academic year, tuition fees for domestic undergraduates in England will increase to £9,535 per year.

When campaigning to become Labor leader in 2020, Sir Keir Starmer pledged to “support the abolition of tuition fees” but later walked back that promise.

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a former president of the National Union of Students, defended the Prime Minister.

Asked about Sir Keir Starmer’s previous comments on his desire to abolish tuition fees, Mr Streeting told Times Radio: “I think it would be a fair criticism if Keir Starmer hadn’t made it very clear, well before the general election, that due to the state of the economy, due to the state of public finances, we could not stand in the general election in our manifesto pledging to abolish the tuition.

“He was frank about it, accepted the criticism at the time and said he would rather be honest before the election than let people down afterward.”

In 2020, Sir Keir pledged to deliver on Labour’s pledge to abolish tuition fees during his party leadership campaign.

At the time, the shadow Brexit secretary said his party must stick to its plan to “end the national scandal of spiraling student debt” by scrapping tuition fees.

Three years later, Sir Keir revealed he was preparing to “turn the page” on that commitment.

In May 2023, he said the current tuition fee system was “unfair”, but that the country was in a “different financial situation” to when Labor had committed to scrapping tuition fees.

In August 2023, the Labor leader insisted he would deliver a “fairer” deal for students and admitted he would not be able to afford to attend university today due to cost.

During the general election campaign in June, Sir Keir said he had gone back on his promise to abolish tuition fees because he was a “common-sense politician” and wanted to prioritize ” recovery” of the NHS.

Budget tax increases

Last week, Sir Keir was accused of telling a “double lie” by insisting the Budget would not be a “war on Britain” or break Labor manifesto promises.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves hit employers with a huge £25 billion rise in their national insurance bills and announced a host of other tax rises on Wednesday.

But the Prime Minister had denied misleading voters when he pledged during the general election campaign not to hit “workers” with increases in VAT, National Insurance or the income tax.

Green Prosperity Plan

Sir Keir faced a credibility crisis ahead of the election after abandoning the central plank of his environmental economic policy.

After spending months arguing the need to put the UK at the forefront of a new global industry and provide cheap, sustainable energy to millions of people, he made an about-face by reducing considerably its consumption by around 80 percent.

Blaming the Conservatives’ handling of the economy, particularly under Liz Truss, he said that instead of spending £28 billion each year on his Green Prosperity Plan, a future Labor government would spend less than that over the course of of the next legislature, if he were elected.

The new plan calls for an overall figure of £23.5 billion over five years, or £4.7 billion a year. And he plans to partly fund those plans with a bigger attack on energy companies via the windfall profits tax.

The energy profits levy, which was due to apply until March 2028, will now apply until the end of the parliamentary term, probably at the end of 2029. The tax rate on excess profits will also increase from 75 percent to 78 percent, which will put it on par with a tax levied in Norway.

The move came just a day after the leader insisted the package was “desperately needed.” But shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves struck a very different tone, warning that she would not allow any policies in the manifesto that were unaffordable.

Gender identity

In April, Sir Keir said his views on gender issues “started with biology”, although he had previously said a woman could have a penis.

The Labor leader said he supported blocking trans women from women’s-only hospital wards and prisons following the government’s proposed changes to the NHS constitution.

The changes will see trans women banned from women-only services and will also give patients the right to request to be treated by a doctor of the same sex for intimate care.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain about the proposed changes, Sir Keir said: “There is a distinction between sex and gender. The Labor Party has championed women’s rights for a very long time.

The Labor leader has been repeatedly asked about his views on transgender issues.

He has previously said “99.9% of women” don’t have penises and in 2021 he said it was “not fair” for Labor MP Rosie Duffield to say “only women have a cervix”.

Ceiling of allowances for two children

Sir Keir faced his first Labor rebellion just two weeks after being elected in a vote on child benefit in the House of Commons.

The new Prime Minister saw seven of his own MPs defy the party whip and vote in favor of an SNP amendment that would have removed the two-child benefit cap.

The group was made up of prominent figures from the left of the party, including key former Corbyn members John McDonnell, Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long Bailey, who were later suspended for defying him.

But abolishing the benefit cap was once one of his own policies.

In February 2023, in a rant against the workings of the welfare system, he tweeted: “It’s time to abandon Universal Credit and create a social security system fit for the 21st century with compassion and justice as its principles founders.

We must abandon inhumane work capacity assessments and the private provision of “disability assessments (e.g. ATOS), abandon punitive sanctions, the two-child limit and the benefit cap”.