I won’t leave Lib Dems says Nick

I HOPE you will allow me, through the letter’s page, to respond to an important question lobbed at me when I marched and spoke out in support of Hastings and Rye students last week: ‘Why don’t you resign from your party, Mr Perry?’

By The Newsroom

Published 3rd Dec 2010, 09:41 BST

The first point to make is that the vote on tuition fees has not yet taken place in Parliament.

I and others continue to lobby internally. I would have no possibility of doing so if I resigned from my party.

Second, while I stand by my pledge to students and have petitioned the Lib Dem leadership to do the same, there needs to be an alternative plan put forward that takes account of the country’s finances, and which today’s students will also believe to be fair when they are graduates.

Third, if I resigned from a party which continues to seek a fair outcome on tuition fees, where would I turn?

The Labour Party - who introduced the fees and now appears to have no substantive policy at all? The Conservatives - who did not want a cap on fees?

No, for the record, I will remain a paid-up Liberal Democrat trying to make Coalition policy fairer, and also, I hope, a man of my word.

NICK PERRY

Liberal Democrats