Government sources are sounding confident about tonight's vote. One just claimed that 21 Lib Dem MPs would vote against higher fees and five would abstain. They expected four or five Tories to vote no and around the same number to abstain.
That would - if correct - give the government a majority in the low 20s.
Update 1747: Three-quarters knocked off the government's majority... the biggest Lib Dem rebellion since the party was formed... a coalition with a healthy majority having to haggle, woo, persuade to get its policy as the streets around Westminster were filled with angry protesters.
This will come as a relief to the coalition but also a warning of what could lie ahead.
The House voted for both measures - raising the cap to �6,000 and up to �9,000 in exceptional circumstances - by 323 votes to 302.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2010/12/looking_confide.html
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