EAST Lancashire Tory MP Nigel Evans has backed his party's new policy of scrapping tuition fees for university students which he said would save hundreds of local families thousands of pounds.

Commenting on the new initiative unveiled by Opposition Leader Iain Duncan Smith, he said the fees were a "tax on learning''.

Scrapping it would save students and their families up to £3,000 a year and he said that across the Ribble Valley, there were already 966 full-time students aged 18 or over who might benefit from this policy, and another 1,176 students aged 16-17, many of whom may soon go to university.

Mr Evans said: "Labour's university tuition fees are a tax on learning. They have let down hard-working families across the Ribble Valley, leaving young people with huge debts when they start work. Labour's interference in admissions has universities tied up in red tape.

"We need a fair deal for students and universities. We want every student to be able to aspire to the top universities, every university to offer places purely on merit, and every student to be studying something worthwhile."

The Tories would pay for the new move by scrapping the Labour government's target for 50 per cent of all young people to go to university, abolishing the proposed "access regulator'' to ensure more children from comprehensive schools and poor backgrounds go to college, not over expanding universities and improving technical and vocational education. This would save £700 million to cover the cost of dropping the fees.

Mr Evans said: "Under Conservatives, the university sector will be smaller, better focused, and open to all who deserve to be there."