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Higher Education Fees

Being at the Dispatch Box is an interesting experience. [Hon. Members: ““Answer the question.””] I am going to answer the question. Half the time we are told, ““You never had a plan for dealing with the deficit””, and half the time we are told, ““This is what you were going to do to deal with the deficit.”” The Government cannot have it both ways. As I have said on many occasions since the publication of the Browne review, the higher education budget would not have been unscathed under our deficit reduction programme, but it would not have been cut by 80%, and we would not have forced the fees up to £6,000 or £9,000.