David Miliband expressed outrage about the raise in tuition fees to a lecture hall full of students yesterday afternoon.

Speaking at the University of Kent, Mr Miliband, the former foreign secretary and current MP for South Shields, said the measure was a move “far far too far.”

He called the Liberal Democrats a “fig leaf” for Conservative policy stating there was no chance that the government would have been able to raise the fees if there was no coalition. He implied that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is a scapegoat as people like to “blame” him for the rise.

Mr Miliband expressed his belief that university should be available to everybody who is capable and willing to further their education. He described university as the “greatest engine” for social mobility and a social integration which would be restricted by the rise in fees.

The question, put forward by a student attending the conference, comes after the news that Labour intend to lower the new cap to £6,000 should they come into power.

When questioned about whether he believed that University should be for 50% of students, Labour’s target the last time they were in power, Mr Miliband expressed fierce patriotism and ambition in UK students. He claimed that 88% of Korean students and 52% of Scottish students attend university so to imply UK students should not is “reprehensible”. He declared that anybody who disagrees does not care about “the future of British society.”

As well as tuition fees, Mr Miliband discussed the plans for the Living Wage. He seemed keen to express the core values of the traditional ‘working man’s’ party as he told students that he wanted not only to embellish their university experience, but the experience of the day-to-day people such as cleaners and kitchen staff who make that experience possible.

The conference demonstrated the MP’s ability to connect with students and young people as the conference was filled to the brim with Kent Labour Students and students from a variety of courses taking up every seat and all the aisles.

The conference was something of an inspiration for the Labour Students. Karl Lewis, 18, a candidate for the Your Rights election at the university was particularly impressed. He said “I liked how he spoke to students as if they were human beings and not beneath him. He was very good at answering questions and didn’t skirt around.”