'I would be hugely proud if my kids did an apprenticeship'

MIDDLE-CLASS parents should sign their children up to do apprenticeships instead of sending them to woke universities, Tory leadership contender Tom Tugendhat insisted yesterday.

- Sam Lister

He vowed to make the proposition so attractive that families would pick the option over “three years of indoctrination on left-wing views” by academics.

The shadow security minister revealed he had to warn vice chancellors that it was illegal to support Hamas during talks on how to handle protests on campuses over the Gaza conflict.

Mr Tugendhat told the Express: “Do you really want to go to university for three years of indoctrination on left-wing views, or do you want to have a start in life which sees you leave with a degree, with experience and without debt?”

He added: “It’s quite something that we are seeing increasing divergence between the way universities seem to view life and the way life is lived.

“When I was security minister, we got in a collection of vice chancellors to talk about various October 7 protests.

“It was quite clear that the way a few of them viewed those protests was not in keeping with the way British opinion views them.

“They were seeking to balance, one of them actually said it, two sides of an argument, as they put it.

“On one side Israel, on the other side Hamas.

“I had to stop the vice chancellor who was saying it and make it extremely clear to them that if they did anything to allow the promotion or the toleration of terrorists sympathising views in the United Kingdom that was a criminal offence and that was not a matter of political balance.