Sir Vince Cable claims scrapping university tuition fees would be "very dangerous and stupid".

The Lib Dem leadership favourite told Sophy Ridge on Sunday that the "cheap populist gesture" would create an unfair system.

He said: "If you don't have any form of fees, I mean who pays for universities?

"How do you end this discrimination between the 40% of students who go to university and would be subsided as opposed to the 60% who don't? That would be highly inequitable."

Clegg: Now not the time to scrap tuition fees

Sir Vince was in the coalition government when fees were increased from £3,000 to more than £9,000 a year in 2010.


His party had pledged before the 2010 election to oppose any rise, and the u-turn contributed to its collapse at the 2015 election.

Sir Vince acknowledged Labour's 2017 manifesto pledge to scrap fees had proved popular with voters.

He said university funding should be looked at, but that schools should be the priority as they are "horribly underfunded".

"We're getting teachers, teaching assistants being laid off. I mean that's where the real priority is at the moment," Sir Vince said.

"Yes, by all means let's look at universities, but universities are about the only bit of the publicly financed sector which are flourishing.

Tuition fees u-turn still hurting Lib Dems

"For goodness sake with some cheap populist gesture, killing that off would be a very dangerous and stupid thing to do."

In response to Sir Vince's interview, universities minister Jo Johnson wrote on Twitter: "I agree with Vince."

On Saturday, a top Cabinet minister said there may need to be a national debate about university tuition fees.

Damian Green, who was recently appointed First Secretary of State by Theresa May, said the current system allows universities to deliver high-quality courses and teaching, and accounts for the country's disproportionate number of top institutions.

But he acknowledged that student debt is a "huge issue", particularly after Labour defied expectations in the election and gained 30 seats, while the Tories lost their majority.