Anne Milton, Parliamentary Spokesman for Guildford has called on the Government to stick to their 2001 General Election promise not to introduce top-up fees. As part of a nationwide campaign to highlight Labour’s threat, Anne joined students at Surrey University for a petition signing on campus. The campaign is being run by Mike Chambers, Chairman of the Conservative Future branch at Surrey.

Speaking ahead of the campaign day, Anne Milton said, “Students at Surrey were let down by Labour in 1997 with the introduction of tuition fees, and this may now be repeated in 2003 with the introduction of top-up fees. As the Parliamentary Spokesman for Guildford, I am concerned that the Government are about to break another election promise, causing local students further hardship. Our campaign in simple and the message is clear: keep your election pledge.”

Anne Milton also condemned the Liberal Democrats for painting themselves as the student friendly party. She added: “After fighting the Scottish Parliament elections on a promise to scrap tuition fees, they quickly went back on this. Despite claiming to have abolished tuition fees, they have merely moved from a pay-as-you-study to a study now, pay later system. The graduate tax they have introduced, which they want to extend to England, shows that the LibDems cannot be trusted on student finance.”

Mike Chambers, Chairman of the Conservative Future branch at Surrey added: “On Thursday we will be running this campaign on campus to highlight the Government’s duplicity over top-up fees. Students are concerned about the threats from Labour to introduce top-up fees, after we were reassured in 2001 that they were not on the agenda. We will be urging fellow students to sign up petition to show the breadth of support for our campaign.”

25th November 2002