ON the eve of the most traumatic week of his Premiership, Tony Blair yesterday tried to persuade students in his own North-East constituency that university tuition fees were a good idea.

He talked to the 15 and 16-year-olds at Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College while Downing Street acknowledged that the Government still has "a hill to climb" if it is to win Tuesday's vote.

No 10 confirmed that Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong, the North-West Durham MP, had told Cabinet colleagues on Thursday that Mr Blair was still 20 to 30 votes short of victory.

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "I wouldn't dispute what's been reported.

"There's still a hill to climb and ministers from the Prime Minister down will continue to engage, discuss and debate with colleagues between now and Tuesday."

One North-East backbencher said last night that he had been advised to clear his diary for next week because it was likely that Mr Blair would lose and call an immediate vote of confidence.

That is likely to be held after the Hutton Report into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly is published on Wednesday. Tension ahead of the publication was heightened last night when the former head of the Iraq Survey Group said that Saddam had no stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.

Yesterday, youngsters at Ferryhill, the first school in the region to gain specialist business and enterprise college status, spent 15 minutes discussing the planned fees with Mr Blair.

One student asked if the new system would punish more successful parents so those on lower incomes could get more help.

His said: "The most important thing is to make sure people aren't frightened because their parents don't have enough money.

"If you're going to give people help it should go to the poorest people, but everybody gets some help because they don't have to pay up-front, which is the most difficult thing for parents to find."

Mr Blair said that universities were going to need more money as the number of students multiplied, especially as funding per student had dropped sharply in the last couple of decades.

He said: "We need to give more money to universities and the question is, how do we do it?

"The trouble is, as more and more people go to university, the Government has got a choice. Does it put up taxes generally or does it have a balance between what the Government pays and what the individual pays?

"It would be great to give everyone everything for nothing, but we can't"

Back at Westminster, some insiders last night were wondering whether the Government was talking up the size of the hill it had to climb in a bid to force wavering backbenchers into voting for it.

Mr Blair's defeat by his own party would hand Conservative leader Michael Howard an embarrassing victory and bolster the impression of a Conservative revival.

Yesterday, a poll not only showed the Tories had a five point lead over Labour, but that they had broken through the 40 per cent barrier for the first time for 11 years.

Parting shot - Page 2

Whistle stop tour - Page 9