OXFORD West MP Nicola Blackwood last night admitted she was agonising over whether to support the Government’s proposals to raise university tuition fees.

Miss Blackwood, who will defend a 176-vote majority in Oxford West and Abingdon, said the decision was “one of the most difficult” of her brief parliamentary career.

The county’s other four Conservative MPs will vote with the Government, while Oxford East’s Labour MP, Andrew Smith, will oppose changes to the Higher Education Act 2004 which would allow universities to charge Students up to £9,000 a year.

Miss Blackwood said she was “leaning towards” backing the Government, but opposed huge cuts in teaching grants which currently fund undergraduate education.

She said: “I did not become an MP to see tuition fees rise, but I recognise it is imperative we provide sustainable, long-term funding for our universities. In Oxford we have two world class universities which are facing ever tougher international competition and if we are to maintain that standard, we have to fund them properly.

“That’s why I think we should raise tuition fees and should not cut the teaching grant by as much as the Government proposes.”

A vote against the Government could scupper hopes of promotion within her party, but students and sixth formers have warned Miss Blackwood they will punish her at the next election if she supports the proposals.

Oxford University Student Union president David Barclay, who urged her to abstain at a meeting on Tuesday, said: “Students hold a huge amount of power to determine who wins the seats in the city.

“If she votes for the proposal, this issue will not go away.

“We will play a massive role in the next election, with a drive to to remind people how their representatives voted.”

Cherwell School sixth former Dan Bowen, 17, said: “Nicola has to be very careful with this issue if she wants to keep her seat.

“If she backs the Government, first-time voters will remember her actions and will want to replace her with someone more likely to listen.”

About 39,000 students study at Oxford’s two universities, many living and voting in the city’s two constituencies.

Meanwhile, Mr Smith said levying higher fees while cutting funding for university teaching would be “enormously damaging”.

He said: “It is unfair on students, graduates and to our universities which are so important for scholarship as well as a major driving force for innovation and economic growth, especially here in Oxford.”

Last night dozens of young protesters gathered at Bonn Square dressed as corpses, funeral mourners and ghosts to mark ‘the death of education’, and today coaches will carry more than 150 sixth formers and students from Oxford to London to join a march to Parliament Square.