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9 December 2010
Last updated at 04:47 ET
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Nick Clegg: "I am not going to apologise for this for one minute"
Nick Clegg has insisted the tuition fees proposals are the "fairest, best possible choice" as pressure mounts on Lib Dem MPs over the key Commons vote.
The Lib Dem leader also urged students to look at what was being proposed, not what "they allege we are proposing".
Ex-leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell are among those set to vote against the rise in English fees.
There is due to be five hours of debate in the Commons from around 1230 GMT, followed by votes from 1730 GMT.
All Lib Dem MPs said before the election that they would vote against any rise in tuition fees although the coalition deal included an agreement to allow them to abstain in any vote on the issue.
At least 12 Lib Dems are expected to vote against, 18 Lib Dem ministers are set to vote for, two are away at a climate conference, with the remaining 25 either set to abstain or yet to say how they will vote.
Votes needed Three Conservative MPs have said they will vote against the measure while a number of others are likely to abstain.
But the government is still seen as likely to win the vote because the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has a majority of 83 - meaning 42 of the two parties' MPs would need to normally oppose a measure for it to be defeated, assuming all other MPs also voted against.
Continue reading the main story Analysis
Nick Clegg seems safely on course to be on the winning side tonight - but it could yet prove a Phyrric victory.
He hopes that the divisions thrown open by the vote will be a one-off and afterwards the party can unite and move on.
The danger is that life for the Lib Dem leader and his party will never be the same again.
Set aside the scale of the revolt and the seniority of many of those involved - and whether it will be possible to bind the party back together - the real danger is that the party is blighted by the issue of trust.
In short, whatever Mr Clegg or his party may endeavour to do in the future they are forever seen through the prism of through fees and trust.
As Tony Blair discovered, once you've lost it, its nigh on impossible to regain.
The proposals would raise the ceiling on annual tuition fees for English students to £9,000 - although the government says that would only apply in "exceptional circumstances" where universities meet "much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access".
The "basic threshold" would be up to £6,000 a year, up from the current £3,290, and would be introduced for the 2012-13 academic year.
The proposal is the government's response to the independent review of higher education funding by former BP chief Lord Browne, who recommended lifting the cap on the tuition fees completely.
It has provoked an angry response from many students and lecturers - leading to large-scale protests in central London, some of which have turned violent.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes told BBC Newsnight he would at least abstain on the vote - but said he had been asked by his local party to consider voting against the plans and he would "reflect" on that request overnight.
It had been thought Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, had been called back from the climate summit in Cancun.
The Lib Dems say Labour refused a "pairing" deal - where one of their MPs would agree to miss the vote to cancel out Mr Huhne's absence.
'Difficult process' However another Lib Dem MP, Martin Horwood, will also remain in Cancun - he had said he would consider voting against the fees package so he and Mr Huhne effectively cancel each other out. Conservative climate minister Greg Barker will return to Westminster for the vote.
Mr Clegg said, as he headed to Westminster on Thursday: "This has been a long, difficult and drawn out process for the Liberal Democrats.
"But what I will be saying to my colleagues today, in the hours today running up to the vote, and especially to those colleagues who haven't yet made up their minds how to vote... I believe that in the circumstances... this is the best policy that we could have chosen."
On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron told an audience in London the government could not "stick with the status quo" as the current funding system was "unsustainable, uncompetitive and unfair" and did not provide enough money to support the huge increase in university students.
He also said the idea of a graduate tax - which is now favoured by Labour - was less fair and unworkable.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government was "pulling the ladder" out from under poorer students, slashing public funding for universities and "loading the cost onto students and their families".
He challenged Mr Cameron to explain why he was forcing English students to pay "the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world".
Call for delay Labour is backing an amendment to the Commons motion calling for the measures to be delayed and for more consultation on the plans to take place.
Shadow Business Secretary John Denham called on MPs to back the amendment: "If the amendment falls we hope that MPs from all parties will join us in blocking the legislation."
Ahead of Thursday's vote, ministers offered concessions designed to win over wavering Lib Dem backbenchers.
They announced that the salary threshold at which graduates start to repay fees will be uprated each year in line with earnings from 2016 - not just every five years, as had been planned.
Other concessions included uprating the existing £15,000 repayment level by inflation from 2012 and enabling part-time students to apply for student loans if they study for a quarter of the year, rather than a third as planned.
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Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play.Nick Clegg: "I am not going to apologise for this for one minute"
Nick Clegg has insisted the tuition fees proposals are the "fairest, best possible choice" as pressure mounts on Lib Dem MPs over the key Commons vote.
The Lib Dem leader also urged students to look at what was being proposed, not what "they allege we are proposing".
Ex-leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Menzies Campbell are among those set to vote against the rise in English fees.
There is due to be five hours of debate in the Commons from around 1230 GMT, followed by votes from 1730 GMT.
All Lib Dem MPs said before the election that they would vote against any rise in tuition fees although the coalition deal included an agreement to allow them to abstain in any vote on the issue.
At least 12 Lib Dems are expected to vote against, 18 Lib Dem ministers are set to vote for, two are away at a climate conference, with the remaining 25 either set to abstain or yet to say how they will vote.
Votes needed Three Conservative MPs have said they will vote against the measure while a number of others are likely to abstain.
But the government is still seen as likely to win the vote because the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition has a majority of 83 - meaning 42 of the two parties' MPs would need to normally oppose a measure for it to be defeated, assuming all other MPs also voted against.
Continue reading the main story Analysis
Nick Clegg seems safely on course to be on the winning side tonight - but it could yet prove a Phyrric victory.
He hopes that the divisions thrown open by the vote will be a one-off and afterwards the party can unite and move on.
The danger is that life for the Lib Dem leader and his party will never be the same again.
Set aside the scale of the revolt and the seniority of many of those involved - and whether it will be possible to bind the party back together - the real danger is that the party is blighted by the issue of trust.
In short, whatever Mr Clegg or his party may endeavour to do in the future they are forever seen through the prism of through fees and trust.
As Tony Blair discovered, once you've lost it, its nigh on impossible to regain.
The proposals would raise the ceiling on annual tuition fees for English students to £9,000 - although the government says that would only apply in "exceptional circumstances" where universities meet "much tougher conditions on widening participation and fair access".
The "basic threshold" would be up to £6,000 a year, up from the current £3,290, and would be introduced for the 2012-13 academic year.
The proposal is the government's response to the independent review of higher education funding by former BP chief Lord Browne, who recommended lifting the cap on the tuition fees completely.
It has provoked an angry response from many students and lecturers - leading to large-scale protests in central London, some of which have turned violent.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Simon Hughes told BBC Newsnight he would at least abstain on the vote - but said he had been asked by his local party to consider voting against the plans and he would "reflect" on that request overnight.
It had been thought Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem Energy Secretary, had been called back from the climate summit in Cancun.
The Lib Dems say Labour refused a "pairing" deal - where one of their MPs would agree to miss the vote to cancel out Mr Huhne's absence.
'Difficult process' However another Lib Dem MP, Martin Horwood, will also remain in Cancun - he had said he would consider voting against the fees package so he and Mr Huhne effectively cancel each other out. Conservative climate minister Greg Barker will return to Westminster for the vote.
Mr Clegg said, as he headed to Westminster on Thursday: "This has been a long, difficult and drawn out process for the Liberal Democrats.
"But what I will be saying to my colleagues today, in the hours today running up to the vote, and especially to those colleagues who haven't yet made up their minds how to vote... I believe that in the circumstances... this is the best policy that we could have chosen."
On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron told an audience in London the government could not "stick with the status quo" as the current funding system was "unsustainable, uncompetitive and unfair" and did not provide enough money to support the huge increase in university students.
He also said the idea of a graduate tax - which is now favoured by Labour - was less fair and unworkable.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband said the government was "pulling the ladder" out from under poorer students, slashing public funding for universities and "loading the cost onto students and their families".
He challenged Mr Cameron to explain why he was forcing English students to pay "the highest fees of any public university system in the industrialised world".
Call for delay Labour is backing an amendment to the Commons motion calling for the measures to be delayed and for more consultation on the plans to take place.
Shadow Business Secretary John Denham called on MPs to back the amendment: "If the amendment falls we hope that MPs from all parties will join us in blocking the legislation."
Ahead of Thursday's vote, ministers offered concessions designed to win over wavering Lib Dem backbenchers.
They announced that the salary threshold at which graduates start to repay fees will be uprated each year in line with earnings from 2016 - not just every five years, as had been planned.
Other concessions included uprating the existing £15,000 repayment level by inflation from 2012 and enabling part-time students to apply for student loans if they study for a quarter of the year, rather than a third as planned.
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