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John McDonnell: Education is a gift not a “commodity to be sold”

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has issued a bold statement to the Conservative’s at this year’s Labour Party Conference, saying education should be a gift from one generation to the next and not a commodity to be sold.

The MP for Hayes and Harlington reiterated Labour’s pledge to scrap tuition fees in today’s speech, pointing to the astronomical amount of debt university students are being saddled with when leaving university – some £57,000 under in many cases.

The Tories have tripled tuition fees during their time in government and allowed the Student Loans Company to hike up interest charges on loans.

According to McDonnell this has created a totally unsustainable situation where three-quarters of students will never pay back their loan, creating a burden for the taxpayer.

Watch McDonnell’s speech below:

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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