Four fights

We sweep up the higher education debris as Storm Ciara departs

Keir Starmer, the bookies’ favourite to become the next Labour leader to lose to the Conservatives, has said that if he wins his party’s nomination he will retain the pledge to abolish tuition fees, to show voters that “we lost the election but we did not lose our values”. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is that it took him so long to say it.

As he launched 10 pledges to unite the party, he said: “Young people cannot wait another four years for a Labour government to tackle this issue. That is why I would urge the chancellor to use next month’s budget to invest in the next generation by restoring maintenance grants for students in further and higher education. At the same time, ministers should set out robust plans for how they intend to invest and support vocational training and lifelong learning for people who choose not to go to university.”