The SNP attacked Mr Howard's call

Mr Howard said it would be "absolutely wrong" for Scottish MPs to impose top-up tuition fees on England when they will not be introduced in Scotland.

His call was branded "ridiculous" by the Scottish National Party.

And Labour MP George Foulkes said Mr Howard's suggestion was "the height of arrogance and ignorance".

Mr Howard told BBC One's Politics Show: "For MPs from Scotland to impose top-up fees on England and Wales would be quite unacceptable.

The solo Scots Tory MP, Peter Duncan, sits on his hands when Scottish interests are on the line, and that irresponsible position has now been backed by his leader - which shows the Tories couldn't care less about Scotland Alex Salmond SNP Westminster leader

"Our Member of Parliament from Scotland will not vote in it and I challenge the other parties to adopt a similar position."

But the SNP accused the Tory leader of not caring about the impact of the fees on Scotland

The party said that Scottish MPs should vote against the fees because Holyrood's cross-party enterprise committee had concluded they would be damaging to Scotland and create a funding gap for Scottish universities.

The party's Westminster leader Alex Salmond said: "The Scottish interest requires every single Scottish MP to vote against top-up fees.

"The solo Scots Tory MP, Peter Duncan, sits on his hands when Scottish interests are on the line, and that irresponsible position has now been backed by his leader - which shows the Tories couldn't care less about Scotland.

'Political ploy'

"The problem isn't Scots MPs voting on the issue of top-up fees - the problem is voting for them, imposing something on England that they don't want which will also be bad for Scotland."

Labour MP George Foulkes, a former Scottish Office Minister, joined the SNP in attacking Mr Howard's view.

He said: "Has Mr Howard forgotten that his government used the votes of English Tory MPs to give Scotland NHS trusts, a gerrymandered system of local government and the hated poll tax?

"Since his call is only to Scottish Members who are predominantly Labour and not to Northern Ireland Members who mostly vote with the Tories, it is clearly a political ploy.

He has abandoned his party's traditional unionist stance which is another piece of expediency just as is their opposition to tuition fees themselves."