Howard slams top-up fees plan as a 'dog's breakfast'

Tory leader Michael Howard has slammed Labour's top-up tuition fees policy as “a complete dog's breakfast”, during Prime Minister Questions in the House of Commons today.

With less than a week left before a Commons vote on the issue, Mr Howard turned up the heat on the Prime Minister and accused him of bullying his MPs into accepting the fees proposals.

The Higher Education Bill proposes that universities be permitted to charge up to £3,000 a year in fees, payable once graduates earn £15,000.

In a lively exchange, the Tory leader said that, should Labour MPs support the motion, it would represent an about-turn on the party's 2001 general election manifesto. Mr Blair dismissed the suggestion as "risible opportunism".

But despite today's bluster, senior Tories have already conceded that the vote will go with the government.

More than 150 Labour MPs had signed a House of Commons motion criticizing the plans, although a few have subsequently withdrawn their name. Concessions on financial help for poorer students have swayed some opponents, including Labour MPs Peter Bradley and Alan Whitehead, who had previously favoured a £2,500 flat rate fee.

But with Opposition party attacks gathering apace, a recent Mori poll has heaped further pressure on the Prime Minister and muddied the issue still further.

The annual Mori poll for student accommodation company, UNITE, suggested that 79% of students would have reconsidered their choice of university “to some extent” had it charged fees of £3,000.

The poll also suggested that debt had risen by 43% in less than four years, with undergraduates expecting to be burdened with debts of £10,025 on graduation.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary, Phil Willis, said the poll indicated that students believed that "what counts is not their ability to learn but their ability to pay".

He added: "As the high support for Liberal Democrats shows, students support a fair, costed and well thought out policy on higher education. Like many others, they feel betrayed by a Labour government which has broken its election promise not to introduce top-up fees."

However, Education Secretary Charles Clarke dismissed the poll saying that the findings should not be “blown out of proportion”.

He added: “Around 90% of students in the very same survey say that the money they spend is a good investment in their future.”

The international think-tank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has backed the government's plans. It stated that it would be hard to raise extra funds for universities from general taxes and would be unfair on non-graduates, who received lower salaries.

The publication of the report by Lord Hutton into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr David Kelly will come less than 24 hours after the top-up fees division.

(KMcA)