In the House of Commons, on Tuesday 19th January Greg Mulholland MP criticised the Government’s attempts to make radical changes to the student loans system, without any Parliamentary debate or public consultation.

Mulholland represents one of the constituencies containing the largest number of students in the country,Mulholland saying “in 2011 there were just over 19,000 in the three fantastic universities, Leeds University, Leeds Beckett University and Leeds Trinity University.”

The changes would replace maintenance grants with loans for lower income students. This comes after the Government plans to freeze the repayment threshold for student loans at £21,000.

Greg Mulholland criticised these measures, saying “these changes will clearly have a detrimental and unfair impact on students from poorer backgrounds – the students we clearly want to encourage to go to university”.

He also pointed out that the equality impact assessment conducted by the Government “explicitly states that the changes present a risk to the participation of students from poorer backgrounds, mature students, BME students, disabled students and Muslim students.”

Greg Mulholland MP then criticised the government for making these changes without any debate in Parliament, saying it “is an absolute disgrace”.

He also criticised government for taking no public consultation on the matter, and only conducting an equality impact assessment after the National Union of Students began legal proceedings, saying “If that does not suggest the Government know they are doing something unacceptable and have something to hide, I do not know what does”.

Commenting afterwards, Greg Mulholland MP said:

“Trying to do this through the backdoor shows, not only their contempt for students, but also their families. The Liberal Democrats utterly oppose this move.

“The abolition of grants will increase graduate loan repayments of poorer students. It will also increase the likelihood that graduates will not repay in full. It is unfair and economically illiterate.

“This hurts people the Tories talk about the most; those who strive and go to university to better themselves.”