Nick Clegg tells students: I know you are angry, but please still vote Lib Dem in General Election

 
Nick Clegg: 'I hope at least some of you will support the Liberal Democrats' (Picture: Reuters)
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Nick Clegg has sent a sheepish message to students urging them to vote for the Liberal Democrats despite their “anger” over the tuition fee hike.

In a video to be shown this week at the National Union of Students’ conference the party leader admitted he was “surprised” to be asked to address them.

He defended the Government’s decision to raise tuition fees to £9,000 a year, despite the Lib-Dems’ pre-election pledge to oppose an increase, and said: “I hope at least some of you will support the Liberal Democrats on May 7.”

The NUS asked all political parties to record video messages for students at its annual conference in Liverpool.

Labour leader Ed Miliband, SNP chief Nicola Sturgeon, Plaid Cymru head Leanne Wood and Tory Greg Clark, minister for universities and science, also sent messages to the 1,000 delegates. In his appeal Mr Clegg said: “I can imagine you are as surprised at receiving this message from me as I was surprised in receiving the invitation to deliver this message to you.

“But I feel I have something important to say to you, because of course I am acutely aware of the considerable anger and disappointment about the decision surrounding tuition fees.”

He said his party did not have the democratic mandate to stop a rise in the fees, so did the “next best thing”.

Mr Clegg added: “We got the fairest deal we could get for students and graduates of the future.”

He said students now pay back less every month than they did under the old system.

Mr Miliband vowed to cut tuition fees to £6,000 a year. Mr Clark said universities need stability and the system now working should not be changed.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in