One of the aims of this campaign is to make as clear as possible where every party stands on EMA.

The Labour Party clearly supports the EMA as it was their own policy, however there is still more that needs to be done to make sure that as many people who can receive EMA know about and apply.

If the Tories refuse to raise the school leaving age then they need to protect EMA. The campaign has so far managed to get David Cameron say “yes” to support the EMA, however when asked the Conservative Central Head Quarters to confirm what he said they refused and instead this was their response:

“We [are] currently talking to headteachers now about how best to ensure those in receipt of EMA can derive more benefit from school.”

Not exactly a firm commitment… What’s more worrying is that many influential right-wing think-tanks and lobbyists are publicly campaigning for EMA to be axed. Conservative Party backbenchers also don’t support it on the whole. This is shown by how few have signed our EDM supporting EMA.

The Lib Dem policy is hard to understand. They appear to oppose the bonuses paid to students but it’s not entirely sure whether they oppose the policy altogether. What we can ascertain is that their MPs by and large seem more friendly towards EMA than Tory MPs.

The SNP administration in Scotland has NOT stood by the EMA. For example, they have this academic year phased out payments of £10 and £20 and lowered the threshold to claim EMA to £19,000. NUS Scotland opposes the SNP plans and recon it could lead to almost 8,000 students dropping out this year alone. Therefore, we need to know if SNP MPs at Westminster would support possible Conservative plans to axe the EMA, or if they plan to collude with the Conservative party to follow the SNP’s cuts in EMA in Scotland.

Other nationalist parties such as Plaid Cymru don’t appear to have an opinion on the matter, although please contact us if you know otherwise!