Martin Lewis ambushes Badenoch on Good Morning Britain over student loans plan | Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch faced what could only be described as a nightmare situation for a British politician being interviewed about personal finance policy: being ambushed and confronted live on air by Martin Lewis.
While the Conservative leader was being interviewed on ITV about his party’s plans to cut interest rates on some student loans, Lewis, a campaigner and finance expert, walked onto the set and announced that he was completely on board with this.
Ed Balls, who interviewed Badenoch for Good Morning Britain, challenged him on whether the Tory plan would only help former students in the highest-paid jobs. After Badenoch insisted that was not the case, Lewis began shouting from the set before shooting side-by-side with Balls and eventually sitting on the sofa.
While Badenoch remains true to his views, polls show Lewis, who describes himself as a money-saving expert, is widely trusted by much of the public on personal finance matters.
Martin Lewis is calling on the Chancellor to change a key decision he made on student loans in the last budget, saying it was a breach of the contract graduates originally signed.
Martin Lewis questions Kemi Badenoch about the Conservative proposals. pic.twitter.com/aj5r6mklF6
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 23, 2026
The Conservative plan, introduced overnight, will cancel above-inflation interest rate increases on student loans, called Plan 2, for those starting courses in England from 2012 to 2022.
The change will be funded by cutting tens of thousands of university courses that do not provide students with “value for money”. Interviewed about the plan on Sunday, shadow education secretary Laura Trott suggested it could include creative arts courses.
Balls challenged Badenoch on whether the Tory plan would help most students, saying it would only benefit those earning enough money to start paying off their debts.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Badenoch said, to which Balls replied: “Absolutely true.”
At this point Lewis began shouting from a distance before walking over to tell Badenoch that the system needed to change but that it was the wrong plan. “If you want to help middle-income students, the most important thing was to increase the repayment threshold,” he said.
“Lowering the interest rate will only help those who can pay their debts.” [the debt] This means that in 30 years, low- and middle-income graduates will not benefit from this change. “If you have £1bn to help students, the most direct thing to help all students would be to not freeze the repayment threshold.”
Badenoch emphasized that “everyone will benefit from this” and added: “I’m even the first person to try to solve this problem.”
Lewis responded by saying he had repeatedly pointed out problems with the system: “When the Conservative government introduced this in 2012 I said we shouldn’t have interest rates above inflation.”
Lewis later apologized to Badenoch for the interruption and said he handled the situation much better than I could.
He added: “I have asked my office to request a meeting, if you are available, to discuss this issue more calmly.”
There is a growing political consensus that the current system, where rising interest rates mean student veterans barely make a dent in a huge pile of debt, is unworkable.
Labor MP Nadia Whittome recently said she left university in 2019 with a debt of £49,600 and had her repayments cut by just £1,000, despite being in the top 5% of her salary as an MP.
