Harman attacks Clegg over tuition fees u-turn as students protest over cuts and threaten to unseat Lib Dem MPs who break pledges on higher education funding
Nick Clegg was today accused of having been "led astray" by the Tories over the coalition's plans for increasing tuition fees as students and academics marched on Whitehall in protest. Harriet Harman, the deputy Labour leader, sought to play on Liberal Democrat unease about the rise in the cost of university education after Clegg and his party made the abolition of fees a key plank of their election manifesto.
Thousands of students and academics from across the country gathered in London for today's demonstration, billed as the largest show of opposition to its austerity cuts since it came to power. Fury at the Lib Dem U-turn has sparked warnings from the National Union of Students (NUS) that students will attempt to oust Liberal Democrat MPs who vote for a tuition fee hike by trying to force a by-election in the constituencies of MPs who renege on a pre-election pledge to oppose any hike, using proposed recall legislation.
Clegg, who was standing in for David Cameron at prime minister's questions today, faced a total of 12 questions related to higher education funding. Cameron was in China. Harman said she hoped Clegg would go out and tell the students protesting outside parliament how "fair" the government's plan was.
"In April he said that increasing tuition fees to £7,000 a year would be a disaster. What word would he use to describe fees of £9,000?" This is the upper limit now proposed by the government. Clegg said he had had to accept that he could not get rid of tuition fees but had stuck to his ambition to make sure that changes to funding were carried out in a "progressive way". The coalition proposals were much more progressive than the graduate tax being proposed by Ed Miliband, he said.
"This is an extraordinarily difficult issue and I have been entirely open about the fact that we have not been able to deliver the policy that we held in opposition. Because of the financial situation, because of the compromises of the coalition government, we have had to put forward a different policy," Clegg said. "The proposals we have put forward will mean that those who earn the least will pay much less than they do at the moment; those who earn the most will pay over the odds to provide a subsidy to allow people from poor backgrounds to go to university."
He added: "We have stuck to our ambition to make sure that going to university is done in a progressive way so that those people who are presently discouraged from going to university – bright people from poor backgrounds, discouraged by the system we inherited from her [Harman's] government – are able to do so. That is why our policy is more progressive than hers."
Harman told Clegg the rise in fees was not part of the effort to tackle the deficit but about the deputy PM "going along with Tory plans to shove the cost of higher education on to students and their families". The deficit would be dealt with by 2014, when the changes to higher education – which would see English students pay "among the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world" – would have "hardly begun", Harman said. She claimed the money would be used to replace cuts in funding for teaching.
In a sideswipe at Clegg's decision to go into coalition with Cameron, Harman told the deputy prime minister:
"We all know what it's like: you are at Freshers' Week, you meet up with a dodgy bloke and you do things that you regret. Isn't it true he has been led astray by the Tories? Isn't that the truth of it?"
Clegg fired back that Harman should meet the students "to explain what on earth her policy is", pointing out that Labour was opposed to tuition fees in 1997 before introducing them after coming to power, and subsequently introduced top-up fees despite vowing not to before the 2001 election. It was Labour that set up Lord Browne's review of higher education funding, a report it was now "trashing", he said, adding that Labour's current policy – a graduate tax – was one that "half the frontbench doesn't even believe in".
But Aaron Porter, the president of the NUS, warned the Liberal Democrats they would lose the support of a generation of young people if they continued to back the tuition fee hike. He said the union would initiate a right to recall against any MP that breaks their pledge on tuition fees. The Tory-Lib Dem coalition agreement promised to bring forward legislation to "introduce a power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP is found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing and having had a petition calling for a by-election signed by 10% of his or her constituents." It is understood that this proposal is not yet going through parliament. "MPs must now think twice before going ahead with this outrageous policy," said Porter of the higher education changes.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the union had hired hundreds of coaches from across the country, describing today's protest as "a very significant event". "It speaks volumes about the anger and concern of students and academics in further and higher education at what this government is trying to do," she said.
The Cabinet Office confirmed to the Guardian that Clegg has "reluctantly" cancelled his attendance at the Oxford union next week. A spokesperson said the deputy PM confirmed he would not be attending "some time ago" due to "an unfortunate clash of diaries", and had not rescheduled. The Cabinet Office spokesman stressed that the deputy PM was always very keen to engage with students and young people, and pointed out that representatives from the University of Oxford were invited to the meeting Clegg held last Wednesday with students, at which he reportedly was given a tough time about the rise in tuition fees.
Vince Cable, the Lib Dem business secretary, cancelled a visit to the University of Oxford last month. His decision to pull out was in response to a police notification that a large student protest was planned, according to the university's Cherwell publication.
