Next Steps in Leaving the European Union

Adrian Bailey Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Davis]

I would simply add one other word. They would be not mad or bad, but simply unwise.

[Mr Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West) (Lab/Co-op)]

The tone and content of the Home Secretary’s speech to the Tory party conference were profoundly hostile to the recruitment of international students, who are estimated to be worth £40 billion to the economy and represent a valuable growth market. Will the Secretary of State explain whether he backs the Home Secretary, and will he give assurances that in the Brexit negotiation on EU students, he will do nothing to damage their access, our world-class higher education system or the wider economy?

[Mr Davis]

Yet again, the hon. Gentleman has missed the point. We have already instructed the Student Loans Company to underpin loans for foreign students to 2016-17. That is an action designed to help students to get here, not the opposite.