Conservatives are trying to skewer Jeremy Corbyn over his student debt 'betrayal'

The Conservatives are continuing their attacks on Jeremy Corbyn over his alleged "betrayal" of young people during the 2017 general election. The row, during the parliamentary recess, is focused on whether the Labour leader promised to cancel £76bn ($99bn) worth of student debt alongside a manifesto commitment to scrap university tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year in England.

"There is a block of those that currently have a massive debt, and I'm looking at ways that we could reduce that, ameliorate that, lengthen the period of paying it off, or some other means of reducing that debt burden," the left-winger told the NME Magazine in June.

"I don't see why those that had the historical misfortune to be at university during the £9,000 period should be burdened excessively compared to those that went before or those that come after. I will deal with it."

Labour, under Corbyn, would go on to win 30 extra seats at the election and help the Conservatives lose their majority in the House of Commons thanks to support from young voters.

More than 65% of 18-19-year-olds backed Labour on 8 June, according to a post-election analysis from YouGov.

Corbyn has since insisted that he never promised to cancel the debt owed to the Student Loans Company. "We never said we would completely abolish it because we were unaware of the size of it at the time," he told BBC One's Andrew Marr show.

But the Conservatives have not stopped their attacks on Corbyn over the issue via social media, with a recent video comparing the Labour leader's comments before and after the election.

"Corbyn and his top team made a welter of outlandish promises to young people during the election - including the abolition of student debt - that they are now shamelessly abandoning," said Jo Johnson, the science minister.

"The Labour party's policy platform for students is disintegrating before our eyes. It is becoming ever clearer that Jeremy Corbyn is looking to walk away from a host of undeliverable pre-election promises to students, making this the most blatant example of switch and bait in recent political history."