Nick Clegg apologises for three-fold rise in tuition fees but defends coalition decision

The Lib Dem leader said loaning students fee money was ‘next best thing’

Nick Clegg has a perilous three-point lead over Labour in Sheffield Hallam - where 17.3 per cent of the electorate are students (PA)

Nick Clegg has once again apologised over failing to stop the trebling of tuition fees to the current cost of £9,000 per year, saying he should not make promises that he cannot keep.

The Deputy Prime Minister said during a Bite the Ballot questions and answers session with young voters that he ”should not make promises on that whole issue without being really sure that it is right, in the first place, and that it can be kept.”

Mr Clegg sought to win back the shattered trust of former Liberal Democrat supporters by insisting that he had “learned” from the episode and understood why his party received criticism after it joined forces with the Conservatives to form a coalition government in the aftermath of the 2010 general election.

He admitted that he had understood why disillusioned voters turned their backs on the party and went on marches across London after the U-turn on the Lib Dem vow to scrap fees, but then went on to defend the decision by claiming that the coalition had introduced a fairer fees system.

It is not the first time that he has apologised for the coalition decision as he has made the same sentiments earlier this year and in 2012, when a video of him admitting mistakes went viral.

Mr Clegg did not answer with a direct reply when he was asked whether he would commit again to scrapping the student charges of up to £9,000 a year, instead stating that he should not pledge changes without being sure that they could happen.

With only 9 per cent of MPs of both main parties committed to tuition fees, “there was no way the Lib Dem policy could have prevailed,” he said.

“Whether we had gone into coalition with the Conservatives or Labour the result would have been the same,” he added.

The Lib Dem leader said the Government had done students a favour with the “next best thing” as they will not have to pay any money up front but would have to repay the loaned amount to the Student Loans Company once they earn more than £1,750 before tax in any given month.

As well as claiming that the coalition has got more people applying for university than ever before, Mr Clegg also praised four policies, including increasing the personal allowance to over £10,000.

“We have had a lot of grief, perhaps rightly, for the tuition fee stuff but actually we have stuck religiously, like a tablet of stone, to what we said on the front page of our manifesto,” he added.