The government has denied suggestions it is prepared to do a U-turn on student loans after Kent MP Damian Green admitted the debts racked up by graduates were “a huge issue.”

The anger over student debts has been cited as one of the main reasons why the Conservatives lost Canterbury at the election after a century.

Labour believes its strategy of mobilising students with pledges to scrap tuition fees and to write off debts was key to their unexpected victory in a seat held by Conservative Julian Brazier for 30 years.

Mr Green, who is the First Secretary of State and de facto deputy leader to the PM, was responding to questions at a conference.

Asked about his message for students who backed Labour and who were angry about being saddled with debt, Mr Green said: “I think this is clearly a huge issue. I think in the long term we’ve got to show that they are getting value for the money.”

He added: “If you wanted to say you want to reduce [fees] then either fewer people go to university or the experience would be less.

"Because the only other way you can get extra money to go in, if you wanted the same number of people, the same kind of teaching, would be to take it from working people through their taxes … it may well be that this is a national debate that we need to have.”

Rory Murray, the Student Union President of the University of Kent, said: “Younger people felt that there was a political party that was talking to them.

"Far too often in the past, political parties have been able to ignore the needs of younger people. What Jeremy Corbyn did was articulate a vision round what being a student is and what higher education is. For some students that resonated.”

He said that the vote to leave the EU was one many younger voters disagreed with and added to higher than usual turnout among students.

“A lot of younger people felt that Brexit was being decided by people who would not necessarily feel the consequences.”

He said students faced increasing pressure because of the need to repay loans.

“Students have never been under so much pressure. What a lot of them felt was that people were listening to them.”

An aide to Mr Green said: “He wasn’t hinting at a U-turn at all. He was acknowledging that the youth support Corbyn attracted at the general election off the back of his fees pledge had started a national debate.

"But that debate has to recognise it’s either fees or higher taxes and Corbyn wasn’t being upfront on that decision.”

Recent figures for student loan debt in the UK show that it has risen to more than £100bn - a rise of almost 17% in a single year. The figures come from the Student Loans Company.