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On 9^th of December 2010 Barry Sheerman MP voted against the government's plans to raise tuition fees. In the preceding debate he argued that the legislation had been rushed through parliament and would "punish people in this country, demoralise higher education and put us down in the league in terms of our university sector".

Barry's opposition was in keeping with his earlier commitment to "emphatically" oppose the planned legislation. He had previously called the plans "insidious" and argued that they were "about raising fees when funding was being slashed". 

In the heated debate which preceded the vote Barry had argued that "This piece of legislation is being rushed through in a way that is a disgrace to parliamentary procedure, to this House and to higher education". "The proposals on which we will be voting today have not been thought through or mulled over, and the consequences of them have not been considered".

"Someone asked what procedure we would like there to be. We have a procedure, which involves introducing a piece of legislation, publishing a Green Paper and discussing the proposals. When the Government have firmed up their ideas, a White Paper is published. During that process, there is discussion with the people who work in universities, who study in universities and who do wonderful research in our universities. There is actually discussion with the community". In his view this consultation had not taken place. He concluded that "policy made on the hoof is not good policy".  

Barry's opposition to the proposals come despite his previous support for the tuition fee rises in 2004. In Thursday's debate he argued that the previous system of university funding, created by the Labour government, had struck a "fair balance" between taxpayer based and student based funding:

"I do not think that anyone would want to go back to the days when the state paid everything or have a situation in which the student pays everything. Since 2004, we have developed a system in which there is a fair balance".

In the end he said that, despite the UK having the best higher education system in world, the government plans would "punish people in this country, demoralise higher education and put us down the league in terms of our university sector ".   

Despite Barry's appeals the legislation was passed, albeit with a majority of just 21 votes. After the vote he thought that "the vote showed that there are some seriously unhappy people in the coalition. I was pleased to speak in it and tried to give a balanced view that this was too much against a backdrop of a squeeze on higher education. Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are responsible for this going through".