Rebecca Smith

Rebecca Smith

Conservative — South West Devon

Speaking in the House of Commons on 18 March 2026

Debate

Student Loans

Contribution

The hon. Lady is giving an excellent speech, but there is a whole cohort of plan 1 students who experienced the exact situation that she is describing. In 1997, Tony Blair said that he would not introduce tuition fees. In 1998, he did, and the Labour party then also scrapped maintenance grants. I was 16 in 1997 and was suddenly faced with needing to pay fees and get a loan in order to go to university, and had no family support to afford it. It is important that we recognise that it was the Labour Government who did that in 1998, having said that they would not. We can give just as many examples of decisions that the previous Labour Government made as we can of those made by the previous Government.

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