LIB DEM leader Jo Swinson is facing calls to apologise for hiking tuition fees today on the anniversary of the 2010 vote that condemned thousands of students to a lifetime of debt. 

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said the anniversary presented an opportunity for the Lib Dems to apologise for trebling fees to £9,000 a year — which Ms Swinson backed. 

As the country hurtles towards December 12, Ms Rayner added that she wanted to remind the public of “how quickly the Liberal Democrats broke their promises for a taste of power with the Conservatives.”

She said: “That broken promise left many young people bitterly disillusioned with politics, which is particularly destructive because Labour believes politics is a force for good in our society.

“Jo Swinson said that her party ‘long prided itself on its commitment to education as the great leveller,’ before voting with the Tories to treble fees, scrap grants, and impose all the cuts that are destroying our public services and left millions of children growing up in poverty.”

The decision to renege on their own election promises by backing the tuition fee hike was a “betrayal” of young people, the shadow education secretary blasted. 

Britain is still reeling from the effects of austerity imposed by the Lib Dem-Tory coalition government with homelessness and foodbank use at record highs. 

This has plagued the Lib Dem campaign with support for the party steadily declining as the election campaign rumbles on. 

A recent projection by the BBC puts the Lib Dems on 13 seats — down from the current 21. 

Last week, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said that Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie should be “ashamed” of his party and apologise to the Scottish people. 

Ms Swinson was also confronted last month by a student at Strathclyde University who held the party accountable for “people dying in poverty” in Glasgow. 

He said that the austerity measures her party enabled in coalition were “unforgivable.” 

The public have also slammed the Lib Dem leader’s support for universal credit and her personal voting record which includes backing the bedroom tax and voting against raising benefits.