A young voter told the high-profile panel of a live EU referendum debate that being saddled with tuition fee debt means students can't consider Brexit.
Mems Ayinla asked the panel of Tuesday's #EUDebate, run jointly by The Huffington Post UK, The Daily Telegraph and YouTube, whether they could explain the benefits of leaving.
The Warwick undergrad said: "Bearing in mind that most of the promises you [politicians] have made to students have actually just been decimated and you haven’t followed things through." Watch video, above.
The student continued: "It would be really nice if you could say something to students to actually let them know why we should leave rather than stay in."
Speaking for the Leave campaign, Conservative minister Priti Patel responded: "I’m pretty positive in terms of the future for students if we were to leave, on the basis that not just to secure and safeguard university funding but importantly there is a significant point about this in terms of our governance and having a parliament with sovereignty [so that] decisions being made in your interest in Westminster."
Asked to clarify university finances, Patel said: “Well of course we currently send money to Brussels and we’d have that money back in this country to spend on priorities such as universities."
Interrupting, Labour's Liz Kendall said: “The magic money tree.”
Patel responded: “Actually Liz it’s not.”
Asked whether the answer was satisfactory, the student said: “That hasn’t really helped I think it’s unfair for you to sit there and not understand and sympathise with what students are actually going through in regards to how much debt.
"We’re not going to take your promises seriously in regards to the better future you keep talking about - it’s hard to do when we have so much debt.”
The live debate was streamed on YouTube and included Patel and Kendall, alongside Conservative Boris Johnson and the SNP's Alex Salmond.
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