Student debt is a generational injustice. Why are we squeezing graduates harder than the super-rich? | Gaby Hinsliff

Reform of this stealth tax is long overdue – and with it, a shake-up of the whole university system Never go to war with Martin Lewis. The one iron law of politics is that the financial guru who built moneysavingexpert.com has a quasi-godlike status in Britain, the man millions trust with their cash in a way they would never trust any politician. If he takes up a cause, he usually wins. So when Lewis joined the revolt against recent changes to the student loan system, urging young graduates to lobby their MPs in protest, trouble was never going to be far behind. And now apparently it’s here. Last week, the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, called for “a conversation about student debt forgiveness”, echoing a rallying cry among young Democrat voters at the last US election for loans to be written off faster (though he didn’t explain where he would find the billions that would cost). Shortly afterwards, five former education secretaries – including Labour’s David Blunkett – publicly backed a Sunday Times campaign for admittedly more modest reforms to student finance. It looks like the slow-burning anger of graduates who went to university in England and Wales between 2012 and 2023 – on a plan that walloped them with higher interest rates than those who went before or after – is finally starting to set Westminster alight. Continue reading...

By Gaby Hinsliff