Green Party pledges to write off student debt

As General Election campaigning reaches its close, the Green Party have pledged to write off existing debt of all former students who studied under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Blasting the ‘exorbitant £9,000 tuition regime’, the party has said that it would also fully fund every higher education student and scrap tuition fees for undergraduates, as part of its plans to ensure education is fully accessible and does not laden people with a lifetime of debt.

It is the only party committed to writing off the debt for those who were forced to pay £9,000 each year to go to university after the coalition government tripled tuition fees in 2012, with the Greens also promising to spend an additional £7.8 billion per year on scrapping tuition fees for new graduates and restoring grants.

Amelia Womack, the Green Party deputy leader, said: “Education is a public good, and we’re proud to invest in the next generation. That’s why the Green Party is committed to scrapping tuition fees. It makes me so angry that tuition fees were introduced by a Labour government which had benefited from free education themselves. Then the coalition government tripled fees, scrapped maintenance grants, and sold off the student loan book. The result is a generation of young people saddled with mountains of debt as they start out in life. So yes, we say education should be free, for life, for everyone.”

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