WOULD-be MPs for Worcester have set out their stall on tuition fees in front of university students.

Seven candidates for the key Worcester seat also faced questions on electoral reform, the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as public spending cuts.

Those who attended the event organised by Worcester Students’ Union included Jack Bennett (UKIP), Andrew Christian-Brookes (Indepen-dent), Mike Foster (Labour), Peter Nielsen (Independent), Andrew Robinson (Pirate Party), Louis Stephen (Green Party) and Robin Walker (Conservative). Jackie Alderson (Liberal Democrat) was represented by part-time student Yinka Alli-Balogun but Spencer Kirby (BNP) was not invited to the event held at the University of Worcester.

Mr Walker said the country cannot afford to scrap tuition fees and outlined Conser-vative plans to let students who pay back their loans quicker to get a 10 per cent discount.

“I would love to say ‘scrap tuition fees’ but with the economic environment we are in it’s not realistic,” he said.

Mr Robinson said the Conservative proposals would just force students to turn to loan sharks.

Mr Foster disagreed with that but said the discount proposal would only help “the most wealthy in society at the expense of the least well off. It will hit the poorest hardest,” he said.

Ms Alli-Balogun said the Liberal Democrat party had always opposed tuition fees and said it has a budgeted plan to phase them out over a six-year period.

Mr Stephen said his party would cancel all tuition fees for the university students and Mr Christian-Brookes agreed with the notion they should be scrapped.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he said. “If politicians had the will they would find a way.”

Mr Bennett said if Britain pulled out of the European Union it would bring about savings of up to £60 billion a year.

He said £16.4 billion of that would be immediate cash savings which his party would use to “definitely do away all student loans”.

Meanwhile, Mr Nielsen said he would want to see a model of “positive taxation” where higher earners pay more income tax.