Reform proposes scrapping student loans for EU students while urging Brits not to get 'ripped off' by university
Reform pledged to cut student loans for foreign students and create an extra 600,000 apprenticeships by the end of its first term.
Reform UK confirmed that it would scrap student loans for EU students.
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The announcement came after the party pledged to scrap loans for all foreign students.
Asked by LBC if the insurgent party was willing to go into battle with the EU over this — and their plans to block EU nationals from accessing benefits — Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice said “there's no such thing as a sort of static trade deal".
“We've got to have the courage to recognise that and work out what's best for the UK," he added.
When pushed on whether the party has calculated how much a fight with the EU could cost, he said: “I'm an optimist, and I'm working on the basis that you talk about a cost, I talk about an opportunity.”
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Speaking to LBC on Wednesday, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden slammed Reform’s plans to block EU citizens from benefits, saying it was not thought through.
“Most non-UK citizens who are accessing the benefits system are EU citizens who've, many of whom have been here for many years,” said the Work and Pensions Secretary.
“They came under certain terms and conditions, and be clear, if we were to unilaterally withdraw the agreement that was reached by the previous government, there would be a cost imposed by the EU.
“Those parties who suggest they want to do this should be clear that they're going to plunge us back into the kind of negotiations that we were in for several years after the Brexit referendum, and there would be a price for any change.
"I don't know what price it is that they're prepared to pay, and I don't even know if they've thought about it.”
The Reform UK announcement came as part of a wider press conference on their plans to boost apprenticeships.
Nigel Farage’s party announced plans for an apprenticeship wage credit, which would see the taxpayer cover 30 per cent of apprenticeship wages for 16-18-year-olds.
The party also pledged to cut student loans for foreign students and create an extra 600,000 apprenticeships by the end of its first term.
Speaking in Enfield, London, Reform UK Education Spokesperson Suella Braverman rallied against the “great university scam” where young people are encouraged to study “pointless subjects at mediocre universities".
She said there has been a “Blairite obsession with sending 50% of our young people into universities, which has left a generation of young people trapped by debt because they were funneled for a system that prizes university-owned skills, and it's left our labour market depleted and reliant on cheap foreign labour.”
She urged young people not to get “ripped off” by university.
“Don't waste your time studying for a pointless degree at a mediocre university. If you want to work hard, if you want to move forward, earn a wage, have opportunities in your life, take up and look for apprenticeships.”