Does the current student loan repayment system unfairly hold back career progression?

The most striking thing about this vote is who felt the loan system's bite least keenly but complained about it most. Voters in their thirties and forties, the cohort still living with 9% shaved off every payslip above £25,000, split almost exactly down the middle. It was the 55-64s and the 65+ group, largely unencumbered by RPI-plus-3% balances, who delivered the most emphatic "yes" that the system unfairly holds back careers.

Gender told its own story. Women voters broke for "yes" by more than four to one, a far more lopsided verdict than the men, who split closer to three-to-two. Whatever combination of caring costs, career breaks and lower average earnings shapes women's experience of the loan taper, it clearly sharpened the sense of unfairness here more than it did for men.

The result lands on a fault line that has run through British politics since fees trebled and RPI-plus-3% became the default: is student debt a manageable graduate tax, or a decades-long drag on home ownership and pay rises for anyone under forty. This chamber, at 63% to 37%, came down clearly on the side of the critics — even if the group paying it off day to day was the most divided of all.