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LABOUR would cap student tuition fees at £6,000 a year, Ed Miliband tells the Sunday Mirror today.

The pledge, which would see universities forced to slash a third off the £9,000 they can charge per year, will be announced in Mr Miliband’s keynote speech at the conference this week, almost a year after the student riots.

The party leader said: “Parents up and down the country are incredibly worried about their sons and daughters. We want to take action to make it easier for people to go to university and not feel burdened down by debt. If we were in government now, we would cut the maximum tuition fee from £9,000 to £6,000 a year.”

The £1billion plan would be partly paid for by ditching a proposed cut in corporation tax for banks. Mr Miliband added: “That’s fair because we shouldn’t be cutting ­taxes for the banks at the moment. We should be helping our young people – helping them help themselves to get the skills they need and to help our economy.”

The rest of the cash would come from making the top 10 per cent of graduates who earn over £65,000 a year pay higher student loan rates.

The pledge piles pressure on PM David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg, who sparked uproar when he and his Lib Dems broke their pre-election pledge to fight any rise in tuition fees last year.