Shadow justice secretary says despite U-turn Labour are still ‘restricting juries by the back door’, as Conservative conference begins in Birmingham
Overnight the Conservative party announced that they would save £900m a year by stopping people getting student loans if they are not UK nationals.
In a news release explaining this, the party said:
Around 20% of student loans now go to non-UK nationals, up from about 10% in 2015. We will end this access for non-EU nationals. While those with EU settled status (EUSS) have protected rights, we will end new claims for this status, which is being abused. There is no good reason why the Home Office are continuing to wave through new applications, and yet in the past 12 months alone, around 66,000 completely new applicants gained residency via this scheme, five years after the deadline.
So we will stop new EUSS claims and tighten access to student loans as part of our wider tightening of student loan access. Expected losses on student loans score as public spending, and repayment rates for non-UK borrowers are lower than for UK nationals. We estimate that by cutting student loans for non-EU nationals we will save around £900m.
Last night she posted this on social media.
It does make me smile when I see Kemi and the Tories copy Reform’s policies…
If this motion passes as written, I am concerned that elected Greens will be forced to spend our time and energy debating and defending definitions, at the expense of focussing on the essential actions that only we can take to make things materially better for people in Palestine.
I also worry that the current wording risks alienating a significant proportion of Jewish people, including those who vehemently disagree with the Israeli government; support boycott, divestment and sanctions; and are strong advocates for Palestinian rights.
