Four more days to stop “legal” loan sharks

MPs debated late into the night

Thousands of us have already emailed our MPs, telling them to toughen up the law to stop “legal” loan sharks. At the moment, pay-day lenders are legally allowed to charge eye-watering interest rates of 2500% or more to the poorest in society. Families are forced into a cycle of unpayable debt and lives are torn apart.

Last night, MPs were going to vote on an amendment to the Finance Bill, which will limit how much short-term lenders can charge. However, they got into a fierce argument about other aspects of the bill which kept them in the House of Commons until 2am. Even tea and toast couldn’t keep them awake and the vote has been postponed until Monday.

Now we’ve got four more days to send our MPs a flood of emails telling them to put a stop to legal loan sharking, which the government has already admitted is a problem. Your MP might not turn up to vote, or not vote the right way. We can persuade our MPs that this is something we care about and doing nothing is not an option. Could you get in touch with your MP and tell them to stop opportunistic lenders ruining people’s lives? Get started here.

If you’d like to read more about the loan sharks campaign, have a look at the previous post.