Gorton And Denton campaign looms as PMQs focuses on student loans and Mandelson arrest
Keir Starmer was pressed by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on student loans at Prime Minister's Questions while the prime minister campaigns ahead of tomorrow's gorton and denton by-election. The Commons Speaker confirmed he had given information about Lord Mandelson to the Metropolitan Police after the peer's lawyers complained about the force's decision to arrest him.
Gorton And Denton by-election amplifies PM's campaigning presence
The prime minister is in full campaigning mode ahead of tomorrow’s Gorton And Denton by-election, a backdrop to a rowdy Commons where MPs responded loudly during exchanges. During the session Keir Starmer ignored Nigel Farage’s question about the Chagos Islands and launched an attack on Reform’s politics of “grievance and division”.
PMQs turned to student loans as Badenoch pressed on interest and fairness
Keir Starmer was pressed by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on student loans at Prime Minister's Questions, with Badenoch telling the prime minister the system is at "breaking point. " Badenoch focused on the interest added to student loans and has said the charges "increasingly feel like a scam. " The Tories have vowed to cut the rate of interest charged on some student loans.
Thresholds and Plan 2 numbers featured in exchanges
Starmer responded to Kemi Badenoch’s question about student loan thresholds being frozen by saying: "Under their government, student loan thresholds were frozen for 10 years. " The threshold is the level of earnings at which graduates have to start paying off their student loans. The government announced in November that the threshold for Plan 2 loans would be frozen at its April 2026 level of £29, 385 for three years instead of increasing in line with inflation, and around 5. 8 million students took out a Plan 2 loan between 2012 and 2023.
The thresholds were originally set at £21, 000 and were supposed to increase each year from 2017. They were actually frozen in 2017, increased to £25, 000 in 2018, and then frozen in 2022 for three years at £27, 295.
How interest is calculated and its effect on graduates
The interest on Plan 2 loans is calculated on the rate of inflation measured by RPI plus three percentage points, which currently means anyone earning over £28, 471 is charged up to 6. 2% interest. Graduates have been posting on social media that they owe much more now than they originally borrowed despite making repayments for years. A chart referenced in the Commons shows how interest added to a loan can outpace the amount repaid for someone who started an undergraduate degree in 2016, borrowed the average amount for fees and maintenance and has earned the average amount for a graduate.
Commons Speaker, Mandelson arrest and police inquiries
The Commons Speaker confirmed he had given information about Lord Mandelson to the Metropolitan Police after the peer's lawyers complained about the force's decision to arrest him. Lord Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Monday afternoon at his London home and taken to Wandsworth police station for interview; he was at the station for nine hours before being released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
A spokesperson for Mishcon De Reya, Lord Mandelson's lawyers, said the arrest came despite an agreement that he would attend an interview next month on a voluntary basis and that the arrest was prompted by a baseless suggestion he was planning to leave the country and take up permanent residence abroad. They said there is "absolutely no truth whatsoever in any such suggestion, " asked the Metropolitan Police for the evidence relied upon to justify the arrest, and said Mandelson's overriding priority is to cooperate with the police investigation and to clear his name.
It is understood Lord Mandelson surrendered his passport as one of his bail conditions. The arrest followed search warrants at two addresses in Wiltshire and Camden, and on Monday he was seen being led away from his London home by plain-clothes officers who put him in the back of an unmarked car. The arrest was carried out by officers from the Met's central specialist crime division as part of an investigation launched earlier this month over allegations that, while serving as a minister, Lord Mandelson had passed on market-sensitive government information to the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The Metropolitan Police has said it will not comment. Consultations between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are ongoing, and the Met said Lord Mandelson has been bailed to the end of May. The reporting of the Commons session was edited by Emily McGarvey and Nathan Williams with Brian Wheeler in the House of Commons.
