Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Leslie Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I thank my hon. Friend for the support he has given and welcome the fact that the people of Wimbledon understand that economic security is the bedrock on which we can support the aspirations of working people. The apprenticeship levy addresses the key problem of the lack of skills in the British economy that has bedevilled us for decades. We are now going to introduce a system whereby companies that train their workforces get rewarded, and companies that do not have to make a contribution to the training that they free-ride off.

[Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)]

Was it always part of the Chancellor’s long-term plan to scrap the maintenance grants for students from lower-income backgrounds? The Institute for Fiscal Studies said this morning that this change

“will raise debt for the poorest students, but do little to improve Government finances in the long run.”

Can the Chancellor tell us why this was not in his manifesto?

[Mr Osborne]

We put building a first-class university system right at the heart of our manifesto, and I think the person who made the best observation about this is the person the hon. Gentleman is backing for the leadership of the Labour party: the right hon. Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper). This is what she said in the House of Commons in 1998 when the last—[Hon. Members: “1988?”] There was a Labour Government then, who abolished grants and introduced loans, and this is what she said:

“I ask the House, having listened to the debate this evening, not to vote for”

maintenance grants which have

“not helped my constituents, but to take the radical approach, to go for the new, fair student loan system”.—[Official Report, 8 June 1998; Vol. 313, c. 831.]

There we have it: support from the right hon. Lady. The hon. Gentleman is old Labour.

[Chris Leslie]

Well, that fell a bit flat. I was asking about the Chancellor’s manifesto and what he promised. Taking away maintenance grants was always part of his plan, but he did not have the guts to tell students and their families before an election. However much he spins it, he is hitting students with more fees, more repayments and more debt—much more debt. Will he confirm that the poorest students will graduate not with the current £40,000 of debt, but now with an average of £53,000 of debt?

[Mr Osborne]

We are increasing the maintenance support that students have. We heard all that in the previous Parliament, when the Opposition said our reforms would put off people from low-income backgrounds going to university. In fact a record number of students from low-income backgrounds are now going to university. The Labour party that he is a member of once supported getting rid of grants and introducing loans, but this shows the distance it has come—that it now opposes this measure to support our university system. It has a new intake of old Labour MPs dragging them back to the 1980s, and we know the direction they are heading in: left, left, left—away from the centre ground of British politics and away from support for working people.