Clegg to apologise over tuition fees rise Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, is to make a direct televised apology to voters for failing to keep his pledge not to raise student tuition fees, in a high-risk strategy intended to start rebuilding trust with the public. Speaking ahead of his party conference in Brighton, Mr Clegg will admit the Lib Dems should never have made a pledge they could not keep and concede that people were understandably angry and disappointed. "There's no easy way to say this: we made a pledge, we didn't stick to it," Mr Clegg will say in a party political broadcast. For that I am sorry. When you've made a mistake you should apologise. Mr Clegg's opponents are likely to deride the apology as too little, too late and see it as a sign of weakness for a party leader whose net approval ratings in a YouGov survey this month plumbed to -61 per cent. The deputy prime minister knows he will be criticised and accused of a cynical political ploy, but he hopes that the apology will help to clear the air and create the conditions for the public to start listening to him again. Senior Lib Dems say he does not expect absolution or forgiveness, especially from students who will start paying higher fees from this term, but that he hopes it will start to clear the air. "I will never again make a pledge unless, as a party, we are absolutely clear about how we can keep it," he will say.