A bid by Labour to prevent the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) being scrapped has been defeated in the Commons.
The party's call for Education Secretary Michael Gove to rethink his controversial decision was defeated by 317 votes to 258, Government majority 59.
It followed a full day's Commons debate in which Mr Gove was told he had "thrown into reverse" the social mobility that EMA had given hundreds of thousands of students from poorer backgrounds.
The debate came as thousands of students marched in central London against the plans to scrap the payment, which is paid to around 650,000 16 to 18-year olds in England.
Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham claimed the "incredible" human and social progress made since the 1980s would be "thrown into reverse" by the axing of EMA.
It had helped boost the staying-on rate in education from 47 per cent 25 years ago to 82 per cent now, Mr Burnham claimed.
He said there was a "compelling case" to keep EMA for educational, social, economic and democratic reasons.
The weekly payments of between £10 and £30 for young adults living in households earning under £30,800, was "overwhelmingly used to provide the basics to support education" such as travel, books, equipment and food.
