Corbyn vows to axe £30bn student debt
JEREMY Corbyn has pledged to reduce or even write off £30billion of student debt, without saying how it would be paid for.
In another costly spending commitment aimed at younger voters, Mr Corbyn said he wanted to ‘ameliorate’ the debt owed by thousands of students who paid fees of £9,000 a year.
He said students who went to university after higher fees were introduced were victims of a ‘historical misfortune’.
But the Labour leader admitted he did not have a ‘simple answer’ for how to deal with the problem, and had no explanation for how it would be funded.
Independent analysis of the scale of the debt racked up since higher fees were introduced in 2012 suggests it is now as high as £30billion.
The estimate by the Institute for Fiscal Studies said clearing or reducing the debts would be ‘extremely costly’.
Mr Corbyn told weekly music magazine NME: ‘Yes, there is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing the debt burden.’ But he added: ‘I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage.
‘I don’t think anybody would
expect me to, because this election was called unexpectedly.
‘We had two weeks to prepare all of this – but I’m very well aware of that problem.
‘And I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it.’
On the subject of tackling student debt, the IFS said in May: ‘ One option would be to compensate these students by clearing or reducing their tuition fee debts.
‘This would be extremely costly, however, as the outstanding stock of loans for these graduates is around £30billion.’
Labour has already pledged to axe tuition fees – costing £7.5billion a year.
The party has also promised to restore maintenance grants, taking the full cost of its pledges on higher education to £11.2billion.
Vice-chancellors have warned
‘Extremely costly’
that the plans could be damaging for universities.
In the interview, Mr Corbyn also proposed, as an anti-knife crime measure, ‘ searching shrubberies and flower beds and parks where people have been stashing knives’.
He said that his all-time favourite song was Imagine by John Lennon and that he preferred the band Oasis to rivals Blur.
The magazine described him as an ‘un-politician-looking fella with a neat white beard, loose toursers and comfy shoes’.