Tuition fees debate - Finchley and Golders Green Tory MP Michael Freer says ‘university is not right for everyone’

Published: 16 December 2010
by TOM FOOT

FLEDGLING Conservative MP Mike Freer returned from the explosive tuition fees vote in the House of Commons on Thursday and told a meeting of activists in Hampstead: “We didn’t go far enough.”

Mr Freer, the former leader of Barnet Council who was elected to represent Finchley and Golders Green in May, was guest-speaker in the Conservative headquarters in Heath Hurst Road on Thursday.

He said there should be no cap on the amount students could be charged and some “weak” universities ought to be closed.

He said: “I feel passionately that we have to break the myth that fees stop social mobility.

“University is not right for everyone. For some people, vocational courses are better.”

“Also – is it right that your average basic rate taxpayer is subsidising a chunk of society to go on to higher paid jobs?

“We need real radical change. Today was a step in the right direction – but we did not go far enough.”

Mr Freer – who went to a university in Scotland on a government grant – voted in favour of controversial reforms restricting access to higher education.

He said the previous Labour government’s drive to increase access to university was not “financially sustainable”.

Mr Freer revealed to the meeting how he “fell in love” with Margaret Thatcher in the late 1970s and had a pin-up photograph of former Prime Minister on his bedroom wall.

“For me it was Thatcher, when for others it was Abba,” he said.

His speech – about his “first impressions” since joining the House – had a bittersweet edge for former Conservative ­candidate Chris Philp.

Mr Philp missed out on winning the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency from Labour’s Glenda Jackson in May by just 42 votes – one of the tightest margins in the country.

Mr Freer said: “I do hope Chris can get there next time – because it has been the most amazing seven months of my life.”

“The coalition is working well. The chemistry between David Cameron and Nick Clegg is phenomenally good – and it has filtered down into the cabinet. Vince Cable is clearly completely comfortable as being part of a Conservative-led government.”

He added that Eric Pickles had “grown in every way” and predicted William Hague would become “one of the best reformers this country has ever known”.