ONE’S voting for, one’s voting against and the other hasn’t made up his mind. Three MPs in the Huddersfield area are divided on the issue of student tuition fees as the crunch vote looms in the House of Commons. Parliament will decide on Thursday whether to back Government plans to increase the maximum universities can charge students per year from £3,375 to £9,000 by 2013. Yesterday the Government announced that 18,000 poorer students could get a year’s free tuition as part of the proposal. Huddersfield Labour MP Barry Sheerman said yesterday he would vote “emphatically†against increasing fees. Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman will oppose the tuition fee rise on Thursday. The Labour man said: “I am emphatically against what the coalition government is doing.†Mr Sheerman added that the proposed tuition fee rise was being accompanied by a cut in Government spending on most university courses. “This is insidious,†he said. “This is about raising fees when funding is being slashed.†Mr Sheerman claimed the previous Labour government had invested money from tuition payments back into universities. He said: “Setting fees at £3,000 a year allowed universities to get a much bigger income. The fact that we have a thriving university sector is because of that investment.â€
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