Suella Braverman has told GB News that student loans are a “betrayal” of the British taxpayer, after announcing plans to scrap the benefit for foreign nationals.
The Reform UK Education spokesperson told GB News: “Generally speaking, there are big savings to be made from the huge wastage in the education budget right now. We estimate that we can save about £2billion from stopping foreign students from accessing student loans, which are taxpayer funded.
“We can save again between £2 to £5billion from stopping Government funding for Mickey Mouse degrees. Just think of this, the Government lays out £21 to £22billion a year in student loans. I’m afraid a lot of that will never be paid back because of graduate unemployment, and a lot of it is written off, and that is a betrayal of the British taxpayer.
“We need to be much more rigorous with how we’re spending that money initially to fund higher education, and so there are those two sources of funding.
“There’s also a huge amount of unspent levy funding. The apprenticeship levy at the moment is not working, if I’m honest. Companies pay into the Government apprenticeship pot, but because of the bureaucracy and the hurdles involved in reclaiming that money, a lot of it remains unspent, estimated about £3billion between for about five years, I’d estimate that £500million a year.
“So that money can be diverted to actual proper funding of apprenticeships. But overall, that’s how we would pay for this tax wage credit.”
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