Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge will lose half a million pounds in support for the hardest-pressed students in the coming year because of Liberal Democrat incompetence says Cambridge Labour Parliamentary Candidate Daniel Zeichner. The decision to axe the Access to Learning Fund by Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable was announced this morning in a letter to University Vice Chancellers.

It follows months of wrangling within the Business department over how to make up a shortfall caused by ministers giving private colleges access to student loan funding. In 2012-13, Anglia Ruskin received £486,338 through the Access to Learning Fund to help those who need extra help to start a course, or to stay in higher education.

Daniel Zeichner says that it is a further example of the poorest being hit hardest: “Taking half a million pounds away from the poorest students to cover for your own administrative bungling is a low blow. Vince Cable started by tripling tuition fees when his party had pledged to abolish them, now he comes back with a further kicking for the most vulnerable. He has long argued that too many young people go to university -; driving out the poorest  is a particularly vindictive way of achieving that goal.”