Taunton Deane MP Jeremy Browne has come under fire from students and members of his own party after he confirmed that he will be voting in favour of changes to university funding tomorrow.

In the run-up to the election the now Foreign Office Minister campaigned on a policy of opposition to top-up fees and tuition fees.

He also said that during the campaign he had signed a pledge card saying he would vote against rises in tuition fees.

Yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Browne confirmed that he and all LibDem ministers in the Commons would vote in favour of the measures during the second reading of the Bill today.

A group of students from Richard Huish College in Taunton this week wrote an open letter to Mr Browne, calling on him to vote against the bill.

One of the signatories was 18-year-old Rob Thompson, vice-president of the college’s Politics Society.

He said: “Earlier this year, Mr Browne made a promise to students that he would vote against measures to increase tuition fees.

“If he goes against that pledge we will feel betrayed.”

Mr Browne said the Government’s policy on graduate tuition fee payments was “both necessary and progressive.”

He said: “I wish the new Government had inherited a budget surplus, but instead we are tackling a disastrous deficit.

“Our manifesto contained the policy to end tuition fees over a six-year period, but that was not a policy we could deliver as the junior partners in a coalition with just 8% of the MPs in the House of Commons.”

Ross Henley, leader of the LibDems on Taunton Deane Council, said: “In a personal capacity I feel very disappointed because I would have liked all the MPs to have voted against tuition fees as we laid out in our election pledge. A promise is a promise.”