PRESSURE is mounting on Sir Keir Starmer to fix the student loans system after Labour MPs warned that graduates are being “outrageously scammed.”

The Prime Minister told the Commons today that the government would “look at ways to make it fairer,” but he did not commit to acting on demands to use taxation to fund education instead.

Speaking earlier in a special debate, Leeds East MP Richard Burgon said that the debt crisis was “breaking a whole generation.”

He called for “cancelling student debt, which would provide immediate relief to young people,” and added: “We should instead fund higher education through progressive taxation.”

York Central MP Rachael Maskell pointed out that “a student loan does not even cover the cost of living” at York University and that “progressive taxation is the way forward.”

Kate Osborne, representing Jarrow, argued that “the amount of interest being charged every year is a scandal and a rip-off. We should just abolish tuition fees altogether, to boost social mobility and benefit society.”

Abitsam Mohamed, MP for Sheffield Central, said the “staggering debt will likely put off working-class students from going to university” while Bell Ribeiro-Addy, representing Clapham and Brixton Hill, said the debt plan was “something that a loan shark would offer.” 

Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey said: “The requests from campaigners are reasonable: reverse the repayment threshold freeze, tackle the unfair interest rate metrics and protect against retrospective changes.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has conceded the present situation is problematic but has yet to bring forward plans for change.

Nearly six million students who took out a “plan 2” loan are finding that their repayments are dwarfed by interest added to their debt, a problem worsened by Chancellor Rachel Reeves freezing the salary threshold for repayments.