Ahead of election, Labour pledges university tuition fee cut

By Kylie MacLellan LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's opposition Labour party on Friday promised to cut university tuition fees by a third as it sought to woo voters ahead of a close-fought election in just over two months time. British university bosses had warned Labour against reducing fees, which have almost tripled to 9,000 pounds a year under the Conservative-led coalition government, saying it would open up a 10 billion pound funding gap. "We are a country where it is now almost taken for granted that young people will find life harder than their parents, we are going to turn that round," said Labour leader Ed Miliband in a speech at Leeds University. Miliband, whose party are neck-and-neck with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives in many polls ahead of the May 7 vote, said the cut would be paid for by reducing pension tax relief for the wealthy. Tuition fees would be cut for both new and existing students from September 2016, he said. Last year think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the rise in fees had increased uncertainty over the public cost of funding higher education, estimating that every 1 pound of loans issued cost the government just over 43p in part due to the proportion that are never repaid in full. "The scourge of debt from tuition fees is not only holding back our young people it is a burden on our country," Miliband said. Junior coalition partner the Liberal Democrats, who have seen their poll ratings slump partly due to a broken 2010 pledge to scrap the fees, described Labour's plans as "financially illiterate" and said they would only benefit the wealthiest graduates who are able to pay back the fees in the first place. (Editing by Kate Holton)