`Inexplicable shallowness'.

Sixth-formers in Nick Brown's Newcastle East and Wallsend constituency last night told how they had been "let down" and "betrayed" by his last-minute change of heart.

The majority of pupils at Burnside Community High School, in Wallsend, opposed top-up fees and had welcomed previous statements from their MP that he would vote against the Government.

But he was blasted as "shallow" by student leaders after switching horses to back the Higher Education Bill at the last moment.

They claimed many teenagers in his constituency would now be blocked from going to university once the top-up fee legislation becomes law.

Michael Quilt, a 17-year-old from Battle Hill hoping to study English and law at university, said: "I was really pleased when Nick Brown came out against the fees. Now I feel let down.

"People are going to be left with all this debt that they've got to pay off somehow and there won't be the jobs for them."

His friend Peter O'Connor, also 17 and from Battle Hill, added: "Wallsend isn't the most well-off place in the North-East but the schools are good and there are a lot of intelligent kids who want to go to university.

"We'd hoped that someone like Mr Brown would have seen that this is an area where people want to get a good standard of education. Now lots of people aren't going to be able to."

Ross Linnett, president of the Northumbria University Students' Union said that students had been "betrayed" by Mr Brown.

He said: "We are devastated with Nick Brown's disregard for principles he claimed to have held as little as 48 hours ago. It is a hard task encouraging an interest in politics within students and young people without such inexplicable displays of shallowness from our Members of Parliament."