Black slams Labour/Plaid refusal to acknowledge student debts

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 24th Jan 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black, himself a former student at Swansea University, has reacted angrily to the refusal of Labour and Plaid Cymru Assembly Members to recognise the problems caused by student debt.

In a Welsh Liberal Democrat debate on personal debt in the Assembly yesterday, Labour and Plaid Cymru voted to remove a reference to students and the specific problems over debt that they face.

Mr. Black said: "Many students contact me about the huge problems they have with debt. The introduction of tuition fees has added to the cost of getting a degree and left graduates with an average £11,000 debt burden when they leave college. It is unbelievable that Labour and Plaid refuse to even acknowledge this. At best, they are burying their heads in the sand, at worst it is like they just don't care.

"I will continue to fight tuition fees and top-up fees. They are a barrier to people going to university and cause huge hardship and stress to students. I am disappointed that Labour and Plaid are continuing to toe the Westminster line on this."