Lib Dem quits as MPs debate fees

Nick Clegg: “I am not going to apologise for this for one minute”

Lib Dem MPs face a day of pressure ahead of the Commons vote on plans to raise the cap on university tuition fees in England.

Protesters plan a day of action as Nick Clegg seeks to minimise the damage from a three-way split among his MPs.

Lib Dem MPs have been targeted by students over a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise.

Mr Clegg says all Lib Dem ministers will back the plans but two former leaders say they will oppose them.

The proposals would raise the ceiling on annual tuition fees to £9,000 – although the government says that would only apply in “exceptional circumstances” where universities meet “much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access”.

The “basic threshold” would be up to £6,000 a year, up from the current £3,290, and would be introduced for the 2012-13 academic year.

The proposal is the government’s response to the independent review of higher education funding by former BP chief Lord Browne, who recommended lifting the cap on the tuition fees completely.

It has provoked an angry response from many students and lecturers – leading to large-scale protests in central London, some of which have turned violent.

Protesters have particularly targeted Lib Dem MPs, who signed a pledge before the election, organised by the National Union of Students, to oppose any increase in tuition fees during this parliament.

Labour say they will oppose the plans – as will several Lib Dem MPs including former party leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell and at least two Conservative MPs – David Davis and Julian Lewis.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes told BBC Newsnight he would at least abstain on the vote – but said he had been asked by his local party to consider voting against the plans and he would “reflect” on that request overnight.

Newsnight’s political editor Michael Crick said the vote was getting tighter – but he thought the government would still win.

There have been suggestions that up to 20 Lib Dems and 10 Conservatives could rebel – which would not be enough to defeat the government.

It had been thought Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, had been called back from the climate summit in Cancun.

The Lib Dems say Labour refused a “pairing” deal – where one of their MPs would agree to miss the vote to cancel out Mr Huhne’s absence.

However another Lib Dem MP, Martin Horwood, will also remain in Cancun – he had said he would consider voting against the fees package so he and Mr Huhne effectively cancel each other out. Conservative climate minister Greg Barker will return to Westminster for the vote.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron took to the airwaves on Wednesday to defend their plans.

Mr Clegg told the BBC: “I massively regret, in politics as in life, saying you are going to do something and then find that you can’t.”

But he added: “I have worked flat out, with Vince Cable, David Cameron and others, to make sure that in these difficult times when there isn’t very much money, other people are having to make sacrifices, what we’re asking of graduates is fair, is sustainable and is progressive.”

And the prime minister told an audience in London the government could not “stick with the status quo” as the current funding system was “unsustainable, uncompetitive and unfair” and did not provide enough money to support the huge increase in university students.

David Cameron: ‘Graduates should make a contribution but only if they are successful’

But in angry exchanges in the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government was “pulling the ladder” out from under poorer students, slashing public funding for universities and “loading the cost onto students and their families”.

He challenged Mr Cameron to explain why he was forcing English students to pay “the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world”.

“The most sensible thing is to go away, think again and come up with a better proposal,” he urged the prime minister.

The exchange followed an article in the Times in which Mr Miliband’s shadow chancellor Alan Johnson, who once opposed a graduate tax, said he now believed there was a “strong case” for one.

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, ministers offered concessions designed to win over waivering Lib Dem backbenchers – the party’s ministers will all vote in favour.

They announced that the salary threshold at which graduates start to repay fees will be uprated each year in line with earnings from 2016 – not just every five years, as had been planned.

Other concessions included uprating the existing £15,000 repayment level by inflation from 2012 and enabling part-time students to apply for student loans if they study for a quarter of the year, rather than a third as planned.

Mr Clegg has said any Lib Dem parliamentary private secretaries – MPs who provide support and advice to ministers – who voted against the plans would find it “difficult to carry on” in the unpaid role.

In the Commons on Wednesday evening Labour’s Hilary Benn said government attempts to limit Thursday’s debate to five hours were “outrageous”.

SNP MP Pete Wishart suggested Scottish and Northern Irish MPs would be unable to stay late for the vote because of the weather and travelling conditions.

Labour said it would back a cross-party amendment to the tuition fees motion calling for the decision to be delayed until after the government has consulted more widely.

Shadow Business Secretary John Denham called on MPs to back the amendment: “If the amendment falls we hope that MPs from all parties will join us in blocking the legislation.”

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