A COLLEGE head in York has torn into the Conservative manifesto - accusing the party of doing nothing to help the further education sector.

Alison Birkinshaw, principal of York College, grilled Conservative Ed Young about his party’s plans for the education of 16 to 18 year olds.

She said the party’s manifesto did nothing about underfunding for colleges, and instead gives money to “pet projects”.

York Central candidate Mr Young spoke at a hustings for college students yesterday, alongside Labour candidate Rachael Maskell and the Liberal Democrat Nick Love.

Mr Young said his party was promising more money for further education and a review of the sector, and schemes to get more teachers in colleges like York’s.

However Ms Birkinshaw said manifesto promises to link new institutes of technology with universities would actually see £170 million of funding going away from colleges.

She added: “In the Conservative manifesto you say nothing about increasing funding for A-level students. You say you are going to review the system but then go on to say you will review the support systems for students, and you don’t say anything about increasing student funding per head.”

Increasing funding for T-levels will affect only 25 per cent of 16-18 year olds, she added, while other college students only get 16 hours of education - “barely” enough for three A-levels.

“It’s significantly underfunded and I can see nothing in your manifesto, in fact I could see in the Conservative manifesto money being taken away and spent on pet projects, institutes of technologies going to universities, grammar schools and free schools.”

Mr Young said Conservatives had a commitment to more funding for further education, and the institutes of technology linked to universities are a separate policy.

He added: “To get this funding you have to have an economy that’s going to afford the funding. You are not going to be able to afford the funding in further education, in higher education, secondary education or primary education, unless you have a growing and stable economy.”

Ms Maskell had already told the audience further education had been the “poor relative” for too long - something Labour would put an end to, while Mr Love said the Liberal Democrats had pledged £7 billion for education.

The three candidates were also questioned by students about social care, housing and mental health.

Seventeen-year-old John-Paul Duddy asked about housing, and about how Conservative social care plans could be justified, when they could see older people forced to sell their homes.

He said the policy looked to him like a “betrayal” of people who had worked hard, and he said young people did care about the issue even though it might not hit them personally for decades. “I am angry about is, because I have grandparents who have worked hard all their lives and tried to do the right thing - this is trying to take that away from them.”