The Liberal Democrat bidding to become Hertford and Stortford’s next MP has accused the Conservatives of failing the constituency’s young people over falling apprenticeships.
Helen Campbell was responding to Conservative plans to scrap some university courses in England to help fund 100,000 apprenticeships a year.
If the party wins the General Election on July 4, it says an independent regulator will close the poorest-performing university courses.
The Liberal Democrats have pointed out that, in Hertford and Stortford, there were 70 fewer apprenticeship starts in 2023/23 than in 2015/16 - a decrease of 11.29%. Across the country, they say, there has been a 172,000 drop in apprenticeship starts per year in England, a fall of over a third.
The constituency party has slammed the Conservatives’ “legacy of failure” and committed to increase pay for apprenticeships to at least the minimum wage and for the apprenticeship levy, introduced in 2017, to be scrapped in its current form.
It requires firms with an annual wage bill of above £3m to set aside 0.5% of their payroll for apprenticeships.
The Lib Dems claim that funds unused for two years are reclaimed by the Treasury and that the resultant collapse in people starting apprenticeships is widening the skills shortages and making it harder to encourage young people into the workforce.
Herts County Cllr Campbell said: “Young people across the country are being let down by a Conservative party that has failed to give them the opportunities they deserve and give businesses the flexibility they desperately need.
“The declining number of people starting apprenticeships in Hertford and Stortford shows just how badly broken this Conservative government has left our apprenticeship system.
“Urgent reform is needed. That’s why the Liberal Democrats committed to increasing the apprenticeship wage to stop treating apprentices as second-class workers and to reform the apprenticeship levy to boost numbers and stop the decline we have seen under this Conservative government.”
Nominations for General Election candidates close on Friday, June 7. So far, the contenders for the Hertford and Stortford seat are (in alphabetical order of surname): John Burmicz – Reform UK; Helen Campbell – Liberal Democrats; Nicholas Cox – Green Party; Josh Dean – Labour; Julie Marson – Conservative.