Michael Mullaney makes a pledge to voters on student fees

A leading Local Liberal Democrat has today signed a pledge to voters ahead of the forthcoming general election that he will vote against any increase in student tuition fees in the next parliament.

Michael Mullaney, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Bosworth, signed the National Union of Students (NUS) pledge which reads;

"We will vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament, and we will put pressure on the Government to introduce a fairer alternative to variable top-up fees"

Michael Mullaney said 'It is desperately important that the Government recognises that driving up student fees will drive away students We need a fairly costed alternative to tuition fees that means that students do not leave burdened with a lifetime of debt.'

The Government has recently announced the start of the long-awaited review of university funding, which will look at the impact of 2004's introduction of £3,000 'top-up fees' and will report after the next general election.

A YouGov poll recently commissioned by pressure group Compass revealed that only 12% of the public think the review should even consider increasing fees, while a majority believes that it should look at alternatives to fees.