But speaking to journalists afterwards, Starmer also refused to scrap or rule out raising university tuition fees – and claimed"there needs to be change"."We have done the sums, we can't have both. That is the political choice Labour is offering the electorate,” he added.The comments come as analysis commissioned by the SNP indicates that, since the Labour Party first introduced university tuition fees in 1998, the cost of student debt in England has soared.
"At the general election, the SNP is the only party that will protect students and defend free education, which has left graduates in Scotland thousands of pounds better off. A vote for the SNP is a vote to always put Scotland's interests first.
He said the policy would be “paid for by cancelling levelling-up funding and money from tax avoidance that we would use to invest in our NHS”.