Thanks to the Conservative leadership contest, which comes to the end of its tortuous journey later today when the new Prime Minister is announced, there has been high interest in the next Prime Minister’s attitudes towards higher education. That’s generally welcome, but it has unhelpfully taken the spotlight off what the Official Opposition, Labour, might do should they win the next election. Indeed, there appears to have been an inverse relationship between the level of interest in the Opposition’s policies and their poll ratings. As the former has gone down, the latter has gone up.
However, it is important to look at what Labour might do in office less because they are currently ahead in the polls (especially given the new PM might enjoy a poll bounce) and more because the next election is already approaching. It does not have to occur until January 2025, 28 months away, but no government likes to run out of road and be ambushed into holding an election at a time not of their own choosing. And as the Labour Party Conference hoves into view, it is expected that they will start putting some flesh on the bones of their policies. (In fact, just this weekend, in an extraordinary interview in the Daily Telegraph, Wes Streeting, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health, heavily implied a Labour Government would end the current cap on Medical students.)
