Tory hits back at campaign

Ben Wallace who is hoping to keep his seat in Wyre and Preston North, is named in a campaign about tuition fees increases by the National Union of Students which bears the slogan “liar liar”.

It targets MPs who pledged to scrap tuition fees, but then voted in favour of trebling them. Conservative candidate Mr Wallace is named in the list from the NUS – but he said he had amended what the pledge said.

He said: “What I pledged to do was, I wouldn’t support an increase if the system remained the same. Of course, the system did change.

“It changed on three levels. I have a photo of the pledge I signed – I amended it to say I wouldn’t support it if it stayed the same.

“I think they should get their facts right.”

The NUS billboards and advertising vans are branded with the message “Broken promises leave a permanent mark...” above an image of two fists tattooed with the words “liar liar”.

Union president Toni Pearce said: “It’s payback time. I’d like to say directly to Nick Clegg that your apology won’t cover any of the £40,000 debt that students will graduate with for the first time this summer.

“They pledged to scrap tuition fees – they lied.

“We won’t let them trade lies for power again.

“We represent seven million students and are urging every single one across the country to vote against broken pledges.”

Mr Clegg has previously apologised for making the pre-2010 election pledge to oppose any rise in tuition fees.

Other candidates standing for the Preston North and Wyre seat are Labour’s Ben Whittingham, the Lib Dem’s John Potter, Anne Power of the Green party and Kate Walsh of UKIP.