I'm glad Professor Peter Scott thinks I am reasonable (Higher education must suffer while the parties slug it out, Education, 3 May). And if David Willetts picked up the phone, I would not hang up on him. But we should not underestimate the differences between us. Labour does not support the Tory-led government in cutting the universities' teaching grant by 80%, which has triggered the huge tuition fee increases. Nor do we support the ideologically driven attempt to create a market-led higher education system. The fact that the government has created a more or less flat-rate system in which student choice has little influence owes more to their incompetence than intent. I have always been clear in my defence of universities as publicly supported, publicly funded institutions.
Shadow secretary of state for business, innovation and skills