Jeremy Corbyn admits he didn’t know how big student debt was when he promised to ‘deal with it’ as Labour blasted over U-turn
Labour leader insisted he didn’t promise to write it off during election campaign but Education Secretary is calling on party to apologise for misleading people
JEREMY Corbyn U-turned on his student debt pledge yesterday after confessing he had no idea what scrapping it would cost.
During the General Election campaign, he spoke of the “excessive burden”, saying: “I will deal with it.”
But interviewed on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, the Left-wing leader insisted he had “never promised” to write off the £100billion debt during the General Election campaign.
Mr Corbyn’s shock success in the poll was put down in part to his key vow to abolish graduates’ bills.
The Labour leader told a magazine before the vote: “I don’t see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively. I will deal with it.”
But yesterday he said: “I pointed out we had written the manifesto in a short space of time as 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 and reduce that burden.
“We never said we would completely abolish it because we were unaware of the size of it at the time.”
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PM Theresa May accused Mr Corbyn of lying. Universities Minister Jo Johnson accused him of “switch and bait politics”.
Mr Johnson said: “He and his top team made a welter of outlandish promises to young people they are now shamelessly abandoning.”
Education Secretary Justine Greening has demanded her counterpart Angela Rayner apologise to students.
She said Labour had abandoned a “clear commitment”.
