Clause 21 - Meaning of ''plan'' etc.
Higher Education Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Tim Collins (Westmorland and Lonsdale, Conservative)
I am always intrigued when Labour Members quote from manifesto commitments on that topic, because I would not have thought that to be the strongest ground on which to propose their arguments. However, I am happy to do the hon. Gentleman a deal: if he stands by the manifesto on which he stood at the last general election to this institution, I shall be happy to comply with the provisions to which he referred, which my colleagues set out when they stood for election to an entirely different institution.
As I said, we are not having a debate across the board on whether it is sensible to devolve
responsibility for top-up fee policy to the Welsh Assembly. Rather, we are having a narrow debate about equality of opportunity. The hon. Member for Aberavon has intervened twice, while the hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen) has done so once, but I am yet to hear an argument from the Government Benches—perhaps the Minister will give one—for why equality of opportunity for access should be interpreted differently in different parts of the United Kingdom. I do not think that that case can be made, but of course the hon. Gentleman might be about to make it.