A 13-year-old letter written by George Osborne has revealed he thought university tuition fees were a 'tax on learning' which would hurt the poor.
The Chancellor and Tatton MP, whose constituency includes parts of Northwich, sent the message in 2003 when he was a lowly Tory whip.
He told former constituent Rosy Williams Labour’s plan to triple fees to £3,000 a year were 'very unfair'.
He pledged to scrap fees totally and said: “To my mind, this is a tax on learning and is very unfair.
“There is lots of evidence that it is this fear of going into debt that most puts people from poorer backgrounds off going to university.”
Clearly that evidence has evaporated - since the Tories tripled tuition fees again to £9,000 a year.
Fees are once again set to rise for the first time since 2012 in plans to be laid out in tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech.
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The Chancellor has also faced outrage for scrapping bursaries for student nurses and replacing them with loans.
Despite all this a leaked government paper admitted some universities are no longer offering value for money.
Violinist Rosy, who studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, posted the letter on Facebook.
She wrote: “Rooted through a box of old letters last night and discovered this brief exchange with a young, up and coming MP by the name of George Osborne.
“So glad he made sure our ‘voices were heard in parliament’.”
Since then it has been shared hundreds of times.
George Osborne’s spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.
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