Labour’s ambition to write off all

The ambition of a new Labour government would be to write off all student debt in a move which could cost £100 billion, the shadow education secretary has said.

Angela Rayner admitted the sum was a “huge amount” but insisted that her party would not commit to scrapping debts “unless we can afford to”.

Her comments have drawn sharp criticism from the Conservatives, who warned that the proposal would lead to higher taxes.

Labour has already pledged to axe university tuition fees if the party wins power.

However, leader Jeremy Corbyn has also suggested that existing student debts could be wiped.

He said: “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 that debt burden. I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessivelycomparedtothosethatwent before or those that come after. I will deal with it.”

Speaking to the BBC’S Andrew Marr about the pos-