Blair scrapes home by five votes

British Prime Minister Tony Blair breathed a huge sigh of relief tonight after he scraped home by just five votes in the row over university top-up fees.

After days of arm twisting by British government whips and a string of concessions from ministers, the Higher Education Bill was given a second reading by 316 votes to 311.

Up to 70 Labour rebels are believed to have voted against the government, which at one stage looked set to be defeated on the issue.

The Prime Minister made it a test of his authority and sought to win over waverers personally in the run-up to tonight’s crunch vote.

Despite the closeness of the result – and the decimation of Labour’s notional 161-strong majority – he will be relieved to see the Bill pass its first hurdle and move into committee.

It came after a day of high drama and a noisy student protest at Westminster and shortly before another testing time for the government when Lord Hutton publishes his report tomorrow into events surrounding the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

Former British Cabinet minister Clare Short was among those who spoke out against top-up fees in the tense Commons debate, urging colleagues to stick by their manifesto promise and vote down “this deeply flawed” Bill.

But the tide seemed to have turned in Mr Blair’s favour after leading opponent, former chief whip Nick Brown, staged a dramatic u-turn just before the debate got under way.

Welcoming concessions made last night, Mr Brown said he would now be backing the Bill, which scraps up-front tuition fees and introduces variable top-up fees of up to £3,000 (€4,339) repayable later by graduates.