Government forced into debating the scrapping of maintenance grants tomorrow
It had been swept under the rug
Callum McCullochMPs will debate the decision to axe student maintenance grants in Parliament on Tuesday after outrage that the motion was passed by a committee of just 18. Since the motion was passed last Thursday by a vote of 10 ayes to eight noes, public pressure has reached boiling point across campuses and the rest of the UK.
The initial debate took a mere 90 minutes and the Government have been widely criticised for their attempts to “sneak through” a piece of legislation that was first announced in George Osborne’s summer statement, and will affect a large majority of the poorest students. The Labour Party have launched an opposition day debate and an annulment motion will occur tomorrow at 1.30pm.
Megan Dunn, the President of the National Union of Students (NUS), has said: “This is the debate the Government didn’t want us to have. Please contact your MP now – we can still win this fight.”
Angela Eagle, the shadow secretary of state for business and MP for Wallasey, said: “The Tories have shown they’re governing from the shadows, trying to force through sweeping changes in committee hoping no-one would notice.”
A petition for the prevention of scrapping maintenance grants has reached 118,000 signatures which therefore requires Parliament to consider it for debate.