Patten backs top-up fees as Labour hints at concessions

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, hinted yesterday at fresh concessions to Labour opponents of university top-up fees, admitting they had "real justification" for their concerns.

But the planned policy won enthusiastic support from the former Tory chairman Chris Patten, who mounted a strong attack on his own party's opposition to the proposed scheme.

The Government is making desperate efforts to avert a devastating Commons defeat next month over its tuition fees plan. Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, is holding a series of meetings with his Labour critics, more than 150 of whom have signed a Commons motion opposing top-up fees.

Interviewed on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost, Mr Prescott said: "At the moment, we are in active dialogue. We recognise the sensitivities that our people have - and they do have real justification for some of those arguments."

There were suggestions yesterday that Mr Clarke may offer to increase the £4,000 loans that students are allowed to borrow or to raise the £15,000 salary threshold at which they will start to repay fees. But there is little sign of compromise on the central issue of whether universities should be allowed to charge variable fees up to a limit of £3,000 a year.

Mr Patten, who is chancellor of both Oxford University and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, denounced the Tory policy of scrapping tuition fees and cutting numbers of students.

He said: "I don't agree with the Conservative Party's position on this. I think they should be arguing that there should not be a cap on fees. That would be the philosophically coherent position to be in. I don't think it is wise to take the position the Conservatives have taken.

"I very much hope that the Government will stick to its guns and get this through, because there is nothing else on offer to the universities."

Despite his qualms over education policy, Mr Patten gave a strong endorsement of Michael Howard's leadership, saying that when he took over from Iain Duncan Smith it was as if "the adults were back in charge".