Nick Clegg should honour Liberal pledges on Student Tuition Fees

At the last UK General Election Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Clegg made great play of the Tory and Labour parties’ suggestion that student fees would have to be increased. He publicly signed a pledge that he and his party would oppose any tuition fee increases.

Mr Clegg was photographed holding up his signed copy of the pledge, which read, “I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative.”

More than 500 Liberal Democrat candidates signed the pledge, including every single elected Liberal Democrat MP.

In addition, the Lib Dem election manifesto spelled out that party’s pledge on university fees as follows: “Scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first degree, including those studying part-time, saving them over £10,000 each. We have a financially responsible plan to phase fees out over six years, so that the change is affordable even in these difficult economic times, and without cutting university income. We will immediately scrap fees for final year students,” read the Lib Dem manifesto.

If that was not enough, Mr Clegg made the following statement while on the election trail: "Despite the huge financial strain fees already place on Britain's young people, it is clear both Labour and the Conservatives want to lift the cap on fees. If fees rise to £7,000 a year, as many rumours suggest they would, within five years some students will be leaving university up to £44,000 in debt. That would be a disaster.”

Now, however, Mr Clegg has supported fee increases of up to £9,000 per year, £2,000 higher than his “disaster” prediction of only a few months ago.

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