Vow to axe £30bn of 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’ debt owed by thousands of students in England who paid fees of £9,000 a year.

He said students who went to English universities after higher fees were introduced were victims of a ‘historical misfortune’.

Independent analysis of the scale of the debt racked up since higher fees were introduced in 2012 suggests it is as high as £30billion.

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 ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off.’

But he added: ‘I don’t have the simple answer for it at this stage.

‘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.’

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 as the outstanding stock of loans for these graduates is around £30billion.’

Labour already pledged to axe tuition fees – costing £7.5billion a year. It has also promised to restore maintenance grants, taking the full cost of its pledges on higher education to £11.2billion.