A former Conservative MP has said fewer people should be going to university, saying they are not nurseries for people who don’t fancy going out to work.

Speaking on GB News, Philip Davies said: “Lots of people who do their A levels, fail their A levels, yet still get the opportunity to go on a university degree course, because everyone has this view that, ‘I’ve got a right to go to university’.

“What’s happening is that people who should be going to university are being deterred because of the cost, because they’re having to, in effect, subsidise the ones who shouldn’t be going to university.

“What we should be having is a system where there should be far fewer people going to university. We want the best people to go to university, and I’d be quite happy for them to go and not pay any tuition fees for the best people to go.

“The people who get the best A level results go to university. They should not be subsidising people who have not qualified to go to university, and that’s what’s happening at the moment.

“University is not a nursery for people just to sit at because they don’t fancy going out to work just yet.”