Labour leadership contender Andy Burnham has promised to replace tuition fees with a graduate tax if he leads the party into government.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4¡¯s Today programme today, Mr Burnham says he would ¡°lift the millstone of debt¡± from students.

Mr Burnham¡¯s team has said it will form a commission to establish how the shortfall of the money needed by universities in the short term should be covered.

The move would be shift from Labour¡¯s current policy of lowering tuition fees in England to ?6,000 a year by reducing tax relief enjoyed by those earning above ?150,000.

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Labour¡¯s previous leader, Ed Miliband, pledged to introduce a graduate tax while contesting the party¡¯s leadership in 2010.

The ?6,000 a year policy was to be part of a longer-term shift to a graduate tax, the party¡¯s shadow universities minister Liam Byrne has said.

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Of the other Labour leadership contenders, Yvette Cooper also backs a graduate tax, Jeremy Corbyn wants to bring back maintenance grants and Liz Kendall would focus on early years education.?

?¡°No young person should have to start their career weighed down by a millstone of debt. Labour will lift it off them,¡± said Mr Burnham in his, which he launched today.

Mr Burnham also pledges to extend student finance to those taking apprenticeships and create a ¡°national Ucas-style system for apprenticeships¡±.

That would be part of what he describes as a ¡°fundamental shift in professional and technical education in this country, so it is a route of equal prestige, and equally supported, as that of university¡±.

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¡°We must undo the legacy of the Conservative government of the 1980s which dismantled our apprenticeship system, as part of a wider attack on industry,¡± he said.

Mr Burnham said he had set up an expert panel, to be led by MP Pat Glass, to advise him on ¡°how we can make parity between academic and technical education a reality¡±.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com