Student Loans

Wendy Morton Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)]

This Opposition debate brings to mind the old proverb that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second-best time is today. During this debate, we have heard from Opposition Members who were part of the Government who planted that tree and proceeded to do absolutely nothing while it grew wildly out of control, until today apparently. I will come on to their motion. Whether those Opposition Members are Conservatives, Liberal Democrats—whose leader was a Minister in the coalition Government—or Reform, which is starting to look the part of a 2019 Tory tribute act, it is down to them, because they planted that tree.

That irony is not lost on me, and graduates in Stevenage and across this country understand that context all too well. Graduates face interest rates that begin accumulating from their first day of study. They see their loan balances rising even as they make repayments year after year, and they tell us time and again that the situation feels hopeless. They shape real decisions about work, housing and family life. They affect the very people powering our economy, raising the next generation and driving the growth that this Government are creating. Some Opposition Members have the audacity to look at this misshapen, neglected tree and ask why it offers so little shade to the graduates standing beneath it.

This Labour Government have taken on the task of fixing 14 years of mistakes and failures with the commitment and energy that is required. As Full Fact’s manifesto tracker has confirmed, two thirds of our pledges are either already delivered or on track—far more than can be said for the previous Government. One of the key missions in the manifesto on which I stood was to remove barriers to opportunity for our young people. Millions of our young people did everything we asked of them—they studied, they trained and they invested in their futures. They kept their part of the bargain, and they deserve a Labour Government who support them, rather than a Government who quietly undermine their ambitions, as happened for so many years.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

I am probably one of the very few people in this House who benefited from not going to university—I did Open University later, so luckily I did not have a student loan, and I am probably a little on the old side as well. However, there is something fundamentally unfair about the Government’s policy. Does the hon. Gentleman not accept that the young people who he talks about so passionately are being penalised by his party? He has talked about track records, so can he explain why youth unemployment is going up under this Labour Government?

[Kevin Bonavia]

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. [Hon. Members: “Right honourable.”] Yes, right honourable —I remember her time as Chief Whip. Like her, I did not have the burdens that people who went to university after me had to face, so I am very conscious of my responsibility to those generations and the generations to come. I am glad that the right hon. Lady has raised the issue of young people, because this Government recognise the extra pressures that young people face. That is why we are taking measures to help those who are feeling the pressures of the cost of living, whether on transport, childcare, or so many other things. We are helping our younger people and looking at how we support our students into the future—we are bringing back the maintenance grants that I benefited from all those years ago.