Can Clegg be trusted? Lib Dems set to lose HALF of their voters for backing hike in student fees

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:25 AM on 12th December 2010

Unpopular: Nick Clegg's decision to renege on his general election pledge to oppose any increase in tuition fees has affected his ratings

The Liberal Democrats are plummeting in the polls with nearly half of their supporters ready to abandon them over the hike in tuition fees.
Nick Clegg's reputation is in freefall with just 25 per cent of people thinking he is trustworthy - compared with two thirds before the general election.
Labour leader Ed Miliband added to the Deputy Prime Minister's woe today by urging disaffected Lib Dem MPs to join the opposition.
Mr Clegg has appealed for his party to come together in the wake of the bitter arguments, disclosing new details of the Pupil Premium for poor children in an effort to highlight the benefits of being in coalition with the Tories.
In April the party leader was hailed as the most loved politician since Winston Churchill. But after making compromises to join the coalition, the party's ratings have collapsed.
Some 29 per cent of those who previously voted for the party said they were much less likely to do so in future as a result of the u-turn, while 17 per cent said they were somewhat less likely.
The Conservatives have fared far better, with just a tenth of their voters saying they would be less likely to support the party in future.
Some 41 per cent find Prime Minister David Cameron trustworthy - only two points lower than before the election.
Labour leader Ed Miliband today said that the Liberal Democrat leader was no longer a progressive politician.
'I think this has been a defining week for Nick Clegg at the very least. He has obviously broken his promises but also he has, I think, departed from the centre territory,' he told the Sunday Times.

A demonstrator adds to a bonfire as it burns in Parliament Square, as students demonstrate in Westminster

Blaze: A demonstrator against the tuition fees increase adds to a bonfire as it burns in Parliament Square

'He's lost half his parliamentary party. I think many Lib Dems will now say 'we're not going to put up with this any more' and see that the future for them doesn't lie with an alliance with David Cameron.'

The Ipsos Mori poll also found widespread concern about the rise in tuition fees to a maximum of £9,000.
Nearly two thirds of respondents opposed higher charges, with just 28 per cent favour.
Three out of four people thought it would make teenagers from deprived backgrounds less likely to go to university, and 46 per cent of parents admitted the fees would put them off sending their children to university.

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The only glimmer of light for the coalition was that just 12 per cent expressed support for the option of a graduate tax being proposed by Labour leader Ed Miliband, according to the News of the World poll.
Separate polling reported in the Sunday Telegraph suggested that just 54 per cent of those who voted Lib Dem in May planned to back the party at the next general election.
More than a fifth are intending to support Labour, according to the research carried out by former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft.
The findings will make grim reading for Mr Clegg and his fellow Lib Dem ministers. The polling was carried out in constituencies held by the party, 10 days before last week's key controversial parliamentary vote to increase university tuition fees.

Ipsos MORI interviewed a representative sample of 809 adults from across Great Britain by telephone on December 9-10 2010. Data were weighted to match the profile of the population.