'Pensioners don't need to freeze this winter, nor should public institutions be left to crumble', UCU response to Starmer TUC speech

The union's general secretary Jo Grady said: 'We welcome the Prime Minister's acknowledgement that universities are crumbling, but Labour is allowing them to decay. UCU has been raising the alarm about the precarious state of university finances for many months. Yet, Labour still refuses to lift Tory visa restrictions on international staff and students. The government must do much more to protect our world-leading institutions, including providing emergency funding to protect jobs and prevent any university from going under.

'Starmer is right to point out the mess the Conservatives left us in, but we now need solutions. Pensioners don't need to freeze this winter, nor should public institutions be left to crumble. Labour needs to move on from blaming the Tories and start rebuilding Britain. This means higher taxes on the rich and massive public investment.'