Victoria Derbyshire Grills Tory Minister On Tory Party Policies Impacting Young People

BBC Newsnight host Victoria Derbyshire grilled Transport Secretary Mark Harper on why young people hate the Conservative Party, pointing out the disparity in policies that appear to make life harder for the young while offering more appealing policies to older generations.

Derbyshire began: “​​Compared to what you’ve done for pensioners, look at what you’ve done for young people. You’re going to force them to do national service. You’ve tripled their tuition fees. You’ve frozen the threshold at which they have to start paying back their student loan.”

She continued: “You’ve extended the student loan repayment term from 30 to 40 years, meaning many graduates will be paying off the debt in their 60s. You invested only a third of what was recommended by the catch-up Tzar to help kids catch up after the pandemic. Rents rose nearly 9 percent in the last year and houses are at their most expensive since 1876.”

The host added: “That’s why I ask, have the Tories got a problem with young people?”

Harper replied: “No, not at all. That’s why, for example, we cut national insurance contributions for working people. That applies to everyone who works for a living. We’ve increased the national living wage to a record level to make sure those on the lowest incomes have had significant rises. And your point actually about tuition fees, I strongly believe in tuition fees for this reason.”

He continued: “If you look at the parts of the UK where they don’t exist in Scotland, that means what you do is you limit opportunities by limiting the number of people that can go to university. If you come from a poor background in Scotland, you’re less likely to have the chance of going to university than someone from the same background in England. I’m the first person…”

“What? Even though it’s free?” Derbyshire returned.

“Yes, because what they do in Scotland is they limit the number of people that get those opportunities,” Harper replied. “So if you come from a background like mine, a working class background, you’ve got less chance of having that opportunity in Scotland than you do in England. That’s why I’m a Conservative, because we believe in opportunities for everybody.”

“I’d have to check that myself,” the host replied.

A recent YouGov poll revealed only 8% of voters aged 18 to 24 plan to vote Tory, while 57% back Labour.

Watch above on BBC Newsnight.