CORBYN’S STUDENT DEBT HUMILIATION
He admits he didn’t know key promise would cost £100bn
JEREMY Corbyn admitted yesterday he had no idea how much it would cost to cancel student debts when he made his pre- election promise to ‘deal with it’. The Labour leader said he was ‘unaware’ how much money was owed by graduates when he suggested it might be written off. He made the pledge a week before polling day. But in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday, he denied having promised to cancel the debts, which are estimated to total more than £100billion. Conservatives accused him of ‘shamelessly abandoning’ promises and treating students as ‘election fodder’.
Mr Marr asked him: ‘If you’re a young voter and you heard those words, “I will deal with it”, you might have thought, “Jeremy Corbyn is going to relieve me of my debt”. But you won’t.’ Mr Corbyn replied: ‘What I said was we would deal with it by trying to reduce the burden
of it. we never said we would completely abolish it because we were unaware of the size at that time.’
He said the party was still deciding its policy.
But universities minister Jo Johnson said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn and his top team made a welter of outlandish promises to young people during the election – including the abolition of student debt – that they are now shamelessly abandoning.
‘The Labour Party’s policy platform for students is disintegrating before our eyes. It is becoming ever clearer that Jeremy Corbyn is looking to walk away from a host of undeliverable pre-election promises.’
He added that it was ‘the most blatant example’ of bait and switch – in which voters are lured by a pledge that is then rescinded – in recent political history.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan smith had earlier said that Labour treated students as ‘election fodder’ over the issue.
In its manifesto, Labour pledged to abolish university tuition fees for new students.
But on June 1, in an interview with the music magazine nMe, Mr Corbyn went further, saying: ‘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.’
He also told the magazine he would scrap fees as soon as possible and refund those already paying for the 2017/18 academic year, adding: ‘There is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I’m looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing the debt burden.’
The interview was shared widely on social media and was credited with driving up turnout among the young, who voted in record numbers in the general election on June 8. But Labour’s position began to shift last week.
shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the pledge was an ‘ambition’ and the party’s education spokesman, Angela Rayner, said there were ‘no plans’ to pursue the idea.
Yesterday Mr Corbyn said: ‘I did not make a commitment we would write it off because I couldn’t at that stage.
‘I pointed out we had written the manifesto in a short space of time because there was a surprise election but that we would look at ways of reducing that debt burden, recognising that a lot of it is never going to be collected anyway and try to reduce that burden.’
He added: ‘John McDonnell has established a working party to look at this policy and we will be making a statement on it in the near future.’
It also emerged yesterday that education secretary Justine Greening has written to Miss Rayner to demand an ‘immediate apology’ for the student debt ‘U-turn’.
she said Labour had abandoned a ‘clear commitment to reduce the debts of millions of people’, adding: ‘In pretending that the Labour Party never intended to clear student debt, you are further misleading those who put their faith in you.’
Miss Greening also challenged the Labour spokesman to explain what steps her party had taken during the election campaign to ‘rectify’ the false impression Mr Corbyn gave to young voters.
she added: ‘Given your party leader has campaigned under the banner of “straight-talking honest politics”, I look forward to your imminent apology and clarification.’
Ministers estimate writing off student debt, including reimbursing those who have already paid it off, would cost £103billion and increase the national debt by £ 3,500 per household.
‘I did not make a commitment, we were unaware of the size [of student debts]’ Mr Corbyn yesterday ‘I’m looking at ways we could reduce the debt... I will deal with it’ Jeremy Corbyn, June 1