Independent student watchdog could keep Tory whip

Lord Wharton, pictured when he was serving as an MP

The Conservative peer who is the government's preferred choice to chair the Office for Students (OfS) watchdog has suggested he could continue taking his party's whip at the same time as being an independent regulator.

Lord Wharton was asked by MPs about a conflict of interest.

He said that party whips, who organise how peers and MPs vote, would give him more "latitude".

"I can assure you I won't be hesitant to speak out," said Lord Wharton.

MPs on the education select committee were questioning him in a pre-appointment hearing for the new chair of the OfS, an independent watchdog for higher education in England, representing the interests of students.

The job advert for the role offered £59,000 per year for two days per week.

Voting and regulating

The preferred candidate is Lord Wharton, a former Conservative MP and former manager of Boris Johnson's leadership campaign.

David Simmonds, a Conservative MP on the committee, asked Lord Wharton about a potential conflict if he was voting in the House of Lords on legislation in areas on which he would also be regulating.

"You're a Conservative peer - and the question has to be asked: 'Are you going to retain the Conservative party whip or are you proposing to step away from it?'" asked Mr Simmonds.

Lord Wharton said he had an "open mind".

But he told MPs his party whips in the House of Lords had said "they would give me more latitude and understand that I may need to vote against or speak against some of the things the party in government could bring forward".

"I can absolutely assure the committee that I recognise the crucial importance of the regulator being independent."

The OfS is responsible for independently regulating issues such as making sure students get value for money for their tuition fees.

These fees are decided by the government, dependent on votes by MPs and peers - and ministers are currently considering a review calling for fees to be reduced.

The regulator also considers the quality of what students are offered and fair access.

Labour's Fleur Anderson asked whether Lord Wharton, while continuing to hold his party's whip on policy issues such as education, could also really be independent as a regulator.

"All I can assure you is that I will be independent and open and say what I think when issues arise. And if that brings me into conflict with government then so be it. And if it doesn't, it doesn't," said Lord Wharton.

Lord Wharton also suggested that if he became chair of the OfS it would consider whether the process for students seeking tuition fee refunds was "fit for purpose".

"I think the truth is that the process currently is bureaucratic and cumbersome and slow," he said.