Cable faces backbench revolt over university fees

sought to exploit Lib Dem divisions by reaching out to those MPs upset about the Government’s plans. Mr Miliband said the mooted removal of the tuition fees cap was “very worrying” and “just a prescription for higher and higher fees”.

The Labour leader, who has backed a graduate tax, was himself forced to play down a split with new Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson, who has previously opposed such a move.

“What he and I are agreed on is you need a progressive system of student finance, and we will be working with people across the House of Commons who want that system,” he said.

“I’ll work with anybody in the House of Commons who wants a progressive system of student finance.”

And he went on: “I think that students do have to contribute to their education, but it’s a question of how they contribute and whether they contribute in a way that is fair or unfair and a way that promotes equal opportunity in this country or one that discourages it – and that’s what worries me about some of the leaks we have seen about Lord Browne’s report.”

Lord Browne’s report, commissioned by former Labour Business Secretary Lord Mandelson last year, will be published tomorrow.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills – which is responsible for higher education – refused to comment on the Government’s plans until after the report.

But over the weekend Mr Cable wrote to Lib Dem and Tory MPs to say: “While it is superficially attractive, an additional tax on graduates fails both the tests of fairness and deficit reduction.”

Comment: Page 10.