Tracey Crouch MP will not vote for increased tuition fees

Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch has announced that she will be abstaining during the controversial vote on increasing tuition fees in Parliament today.

The Conservative?backbencher, who was first elected in May, said that she was not in principle opposed to tuition fees, but pointed out that, for example, if the number of students at the Universities at Medway rises to 10,000 in 2012 as expected, then that one intake alone could rack up a debt of ?270m, if fees were all ?9,ooo per year, and “a quarter of which will never be paid back and picked up by the taxpayer”.

Miss Crouch said “I have, after much consideration and discussion with Ministers, decided not to vote for the Government?s proposals to treble tuition fees.

“Once upon a time I was opposed to tuition fees but their introduction by the last Labour Government fundamentally altered the way higher education is funded and therefore the debate on whether higher education should be free is over. The debate today is what the fee should be and I personally do not agree with the cap being raised to ?9000, especially as it is a fee that will be inflationary so will continue to rise over time.

“To put this in a local perspective, in 2012, the number of students attending the Universities at Medway is estimated to rise to 10,000; if each student is charged 9K per annum for their course, graduates from Chatham Maritime will owe ?270million worth of tuition fee debt, a quarter of which will never be paid back and picked up by the taxpayer.

“The Government is due to conduct a review of higher education next year which will look at the size of the university sector, alternatives to HE such as further education and vocational education. In my view it would have been better to conduct that review first and decide what the tuition fee structure should be after. In many respects today?s vote is like making the icing for a cake that has not yet been baked.

“Since I don?t disagree with tuition fees, nor do I necessarily agree with increasing fees per se, I have decided to abstain rather than vote against. ”

Carrying the comments on his KentOnline blog, the Kent Meseenger‘s political editor Paul Francis said that “it is refreshing to see one of our newly-elected MPs prepared to stand up for what they believe in, regardless of whether you agree with her case or not.

“She may take some flak from the Whips. She may have irritated ministers. But at least she hasn’t just parroted the party line and as Ann Widdecombe demonstrated, the public rather likes politicians who speak their mind and are prepared to say what they believe.

“Parliament needs more independent voices and fewer political careerists.”

The debate has already begun in the House of Commons today, and Sky News are running rolling coverage of the debate inside the chamber, and the reaction outside the chamber.

It is not presently clear how Medway’s other MPs will vote, although Medway Council last month resolved to write to all three and urge them to vote against the proposals.

Update @ 18:50

According to the Financial Times, Tracey Crouch did indeed abstain and Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) voted against the proposals. There were only six Tory rebels and two abstentions, meaning Rehman Chishti (Gillingham and Rainham) supported the proposals to raise fees up to a maximum of ?9,000 – a vote that was won by 323 to 302 votes.