David Laws: All Lib Dems have 'collective responsibility' for breaking tuiton fee promise But Mr Laws told the BBC it would not be fair to say this was a failure of leadership by Mr Clegg. "He took on the party and told them what they did have to hear," he said. He now regrets, I now regret, Vince Cable now regrets that we did not make the risk clearer. The minister said it would have been "technically possible" for Liberal Democrats to keep their word if they had won the general election. But he admitted that everybody knew this was a very unlikely outcome and they would probably have to abandon it in a coalition. "All of us appreciated it was a very tough budget environment," he said. Mr Laws recently returned to Government - two years after an expenses scandal - just before a tough party conference for the Liberal Democrats due to start this weekend. In a party political broadcast to be aired during the conference, Mr Clegg admits that "many" of the party's supporters "have strong - and pretty mixed reactions" to some of the party's actions in Government. He said that he meets "people who are disappointed and angry that we couldn't keep all our promises - above all our promise not to raise tuition fees."