An irate college student in the BBC Question Time audience took a swipe at Vince Cable over the 2010 tuition fee hike, telling him: “You have no idea what damage you have done”.
The teenager rounded on the Lib Dem leader during Thursday night’s show, which was held at a college in Bridgwater.
He told Cable: “The trouble is Vince, you come to a college, you’re in a college building and I go to this college. But not once have I heard tonight you say sorry for what your party did. You wear the badge, you’re in the party - just say sorry.
“You’re here, you’re in front of me, can you say sorry?” the teen continued.
“Next year I go to university, I will probably be in £50,000 worth of debt. What you did in government is going to hit me - probably hit my friend - the hardest. You have no idea what damage you have done.
“Apologise, c’mon, just apologise now.”
The Lib Dems caused widespread controversy in 2010 when, despite pledging to oppose tuition fee increases, the party supported a Tory move that saw university fees rise to £9,000 a year under the coalition.
But Cable, who was one of 28 Lib Dems who voted in favour of the tuition fee rise, said the part had already apologised “for making a promise we couldn’t keep”.
“The policy was perfectly sensible and no plausible alternative government has got a better way of funding university,” he said as the student continued to demand an apology.