Mr Duncan Smith sets his sights on the student vote

A pledge to scrap tuition fees for university students will be a key plank of the Conservative platform for the next election.

Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith is outlining the policy as part of a keynote speech spelling out his party's strategy for a return to power.

Entitled "A fair deal for everyone", the speech attacks Labour for holding back people in Britain and promises a "different kind of government altogether".

Policies highlighted include plans to increase choice in healthcare through "patient passports"; raising police numbers; and proving a "lower tax party".

Mr Duncan Smith is branding the government's controversial tuition fee policy - which is in place in England and Wales - as a "tax on learning".

No-one is helped by holding back people who create wealth Iain Duncan Smith

The Tories say they will also get rid of the government's target of getting half of all young people into university.

The new admissions regulator being introduced by the government, the Office for Fair Access (Offa) would also be abolished.

The party says getting rid of tuition fees would save students and their families up to �3,000 a year.

The cost to the taxpayer would be �700m but the Tories insist that not expanding the university sector in line with government plans would save �485m.

Scrapping Offa and other measures would, they claim, save more than �200m.

Family penalty

Mr Duncan Smith is telling his audience at the University of London: "We will scrap university tuition fees - a tax on learning.

"Their fees have penalised hard-working families who want their children to get on.

Duncan Smith says Labour imposes big burdens for small ambitions

"We will make the university sector better focused and will provide places to all who will benefit from them, on the basis of their merit and their potential, regardless of their background, regardless of their means."

Mr Duncan Smith is using the speech to argue that Labour policies "involve big burdens and small ambitions".

"They respond to every problem by increasing the power of politicians and the centralised state," he says.

"But a greedy, know-all state crushes public service professionalism and voluntary action - just as much as it flattens economic enterprise."

'Nobody left behind'

He says there is no contradiction between ensuring economic success and "world class" public services.

And it is possible to be fair to both "those who need jobs and those who create them".

Hodge says the plans would see "terrible" cuts in student numbers

"The Conservative Party's fair deal for everyone is built on a unifying commitment to ensure that no-one is held back and no-one is left behind," he continues.

Shadow education secretary Damian Green says the new Tory policy will help cut red tape in universities.

And he argues more can be done to tackle the UK's long-time failure to provide excellent vocational courses.

'Funding crisis'

Higher Education Minister Margaret Hodge poured scorn on the Tory proposals.

She said: "The Tories have demonstrated yet again that they have a complete lack of understanding of the funding crisis that universities currently face.

"Universities currently get half a billion pounds in income from fees, which are only charged to those who can afford to pay.

"Abolishing all tuition fees will mean immediate terrible cuts in student numbers.

"There would be 100,000 fewer students in our universities, and there would be 6,500 fewer lecturers whom we have recruited."

Access arguments

Ms Hodge said the Offa regulator did not cost anything and argued that the plan was an example of swingeing Tory tax cuts.

She argued too that the government was already encouraging more students to begin vocational courses.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis dubbed the policy a "gimmick" and claimed the figures did not add up.

"The Tory approach to tuition fees comes at a price, less young people in our universities," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said it welcomed the Tory stance.

"But we wouldn't want to see this at the expense to expand higher education or make access to higher education more equitable," she added.

The new policy could spell trouble for government plans to introduce university top-up fees, with 173 MPs, many of them Labour, urging ministers against extra charges.