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The Solihull MP last year vowed to oppose a rise, but recently backed the policy. She tonight abstained in the vote to raise the cap on fees to £9,000, approved by MPs.
In December last year Mrs Burt wrote on her website that party leaders had “confirmed their commitment to scrapping student tuition fees”. The page is no longer available.
She said then: “Labour and the Conservatives refuse to address the issue of fees and there is a real danger that both of them would lift the cap on fees which could mean even more debt for students when they leave university.
“Whether you want to study locally or go further a field, the decision should be based on your aspirations, grades and intelligence, not the wealth of your parents.
“It's simply wrong to penalise people who want to make the best of themselves by saddling them with enormous mortgage-style debts from the day they graduate.”
Yet she told politics.co.uk last month: “We went into the general election with the full and certain belief that what we had proposed and fully costed was doable.
“What's now clear is that the position was very far from what we had originally thought so we're now in a situation where yes, we can stick to our principles, but where does that leave a first-class world higher education system?”
“Those people who say 'I'm being pure and sticking to my principles' - they must say how they would find the money to keep our world-class higher education system.”
She said: "It's the politics of coalition. We understand the reality we have to operate in."
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