Williams refuses to run for Oxford job

Baroness Williams of Crosby has pulled out of the race to become Chancellor of Oxford University because she opposes top-up fees.

Lady Williams, the Liberal Democrat peer and former Labour secretary of state for education, had planned to put her name forward for the post, made vacant by the death of Lord Jenkins of Hillhead. She said she had been "offered spontaneous support from many Oxford graduates" to stand.

Last night she said that she would have faced "an irreconcilable conflict of interests" if the university had decided to apply to introduce top-up fees as a result of proposals in a White Paper published on Wednesday. The university is expected to be among the first to charge the maximum tuition fee of £3,000 a year, planned to be introduced in 2006.