Theresa May tries to woo younger voters with tuition fee freeze

Theresa May and the Tories will launch a policy blitz aimed at wooing younger voters after the opening of their party conference was hijacked by Boris Johnson.

The Prime Minister and senior Cabinet ministers will unveil a tuition fees u-turn to help hard-up students, a boost for first-time buyers and more protection for tenants of private landlords.

The moves come after members of the PM's inner circle were incensed by the latest attack on her authority by the Foreign Secretary, which came on the eve of the conference in Manchester.

Mr Johnson, who launched a Brexit broadside ahead of Mrs May's Florence speech last month, issued four new demands and called for an end to the public sector pay cap and an increase in the minimum wage.

The PM, who celebrates her 61st birthday on the opening day of the conference, signalled the moves to help younger voters in an interview in the Sun on Sunday.

"Too many young people fear they are going to be worse off than their parents," she said.

"We have listened to those concerns and we are going to act to offer a fairer deal to students and young people."

Boris Johnson has reopened political wounds ahead of the Conservative conference

Under the Tory u-turn, tuition fees will be frozen at £9,250, with a £250 inflation rise to £9,500 planned for next year scrapped.

And the amount graduates must earn before they start student loan repayments will be raised from £21,000 to £25,000, a saving of £360 next year for graduates earning above the new threshold.

The dramatic climbdown on tuition fees is the most high-profile move in a Tory fightback against Jeremy Corbyn and Labour after their vibrant conference in Brighton last week.

And it comes after polling evidence showed a dramatic slump in Tory supporters among voters under 40 in the general election in June and a surge in support for Labour.

The Government also plans a £10bn expansion of the Help To Buy scheme, which is aimed at helping an extra 135,000 people get a foot on the housing ladder.

To help give private tenants greater security, the Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who speaks on the opening day of the conference, will announce a three-point plan.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid wants to give private tenants greater security

• All landlords will have to become members of an ombudsman scheme;

• All letting agents will have to be registered and regulated; and

• There will be incentives for landlords to offer tenancies of at least a year.

"For too long tenants have felt unable to resolve the issues they've faced, be it insecure tenure, unfair letting agents' fees or poor treatment by their landlord with little to no means of redress," Mr Javid will say.

"We're going to change that. Everyone has a right to feel safe and secure in their own homes and we will make sure they do."

In her Sun on Sunday interview, the Prime Minister defiantly rejected calls from her Tory critics to step down by declaring she is a woman with a mission.

"My mission is to build a better future for everyone - and I intend to show we can do it," she said.

"I'm not a quitter and I'm in this for the long term because there is a job to be done."

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has criticised Mrs May pledge to freeze tuition fees

Angela Rayner MP, Labour's shadow education secretary, responding to the Tories' announcement on freezing tuition fees, said: "The fact Theresa May thinks she can win over young people by pledging to freeze tuition fees only weeks after increasing them to £9,250 shows just how out of touch she is.

"Another commission to look at tuition fees is a desperate attempt by the Tories to kick the issue into the long grass because they have no plans for young people and no ideas for our country. They are yesterday's party.

"The next Labour government will scrap tuition fees entirely and introduce a National Education Service for lifelong learning for the many not the few. "

John Healey MP, Labour's shadow housing secretary, responding to the Tories' announcement to extend the Help to Buy scheme, said: "This is yet another policy from the Tories that will only help the few, not the many.

"Britain is suffering from a housing crisis, with home ownership at a 30-year low and 900,000 fewer under-45s now owning a home since 2010.

"Young people held back by a broken housing market don't need Theresa May's gimmicks but the mass building programme of genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy that Labour put forward in our manifesto."

(SKYNEWS)