Mr Clegg has previously expressed doubts over the feasibility of the party’s commitment; suggesting that abolishing "tuition fees would cost billions of pounds every year" and so "we need to be certain we can afford it before we make any promises". He was later forced to reverse his decision to remove the manifesto commitment owing to strong public dissent from senior figures, including the former leader Charles Kennedy.
Under the plans, which would not see tuition fees finally scrapped until the Parliament after next, fees would first be scrapped for final-year students, in the financial year 2010-11, at the cost of £511m. The overall cost of the policy over six years would be £7.5bn.
Vince Cable conceded that free tuition would be made possible through a reduction in numbers entering higher education.
Speaking to Jon Sopel on BBC’s Politics Show he said: "The issue about how you afford it, in a very tough environment for public spending, is it's a question of how many people actually go to university, so the question is whether you deal with it through fees or by restricting numbers and the latter has to be the way forward I'm afraid."
