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Simon Wright, Lib Dem MP for Norwich South, voted against, while Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk, voted for the tuition fees rise.

If you needed some idea of what the student fees fiasco has been like for Liberal Democrats, you only needed to look at Simon Wright moments after he had voted.

The Norwich South MP had decided to follow his conscience and vote against the wishes of his party leadership.

He walked back into the chamber on his own looking very subdued and sat alone on the bench deep in thought. A few minutes later he took solace with fellow rebel, Julian Huppert, the MP for Cambridge, before the vote was declared.

"It had been really difficult for me to come to the decision to vote against colleagues for whom I have a huge amount of respect," he said. "It is not easy to walk through the division lobby when you know you are ".

"I had signed up to the coalition and I broke the agreement. I don't take any pride in that."

But the MP still believes he was right to vote the way he did.

"I very strongly oppose tuition fees and that was a key part of my election campaign. I felt I had been given a mandate by my electorate to defy the coalition on this issue," he said.

His fellow Norfolk MP and close friend Norman Lamb has been a passionate advocate of the new proposals and voted unhesitatingly for the increase.

"It's good that we've got this through but there's no doubting that this has been very tough for the party and I completely understand people's anxieties," said Mr Lamb.

"My argument is that when people look at the I think they'll find there's a lot that makes sense."

He spoke as thousands of students protested, many of them violently, in Parliament Square; the culmination of weeks of protests around the country. There hasn't been so much anger over an issue since the bill to ban hunting with hounds. Has Mr Lamb taken any notice of this?

"I've made a point of making myself available to talk to people. I've spoken to a number of student groups over the last couple of weeks. I engage in the argument with them and what I hope is that they'll listen to the case we put.

"This is a major reform but it's a way of ensuring we have world class universities in the future".

He says he has no animosity towards colleagues like Simon Wright who voted against the government.

"We respect the fact that colleagues have different views and we work together to make a success of this coalition because it is necessary for the national interest."

Both Mr Lamb and Mr Wright will probably not get too much flak from constituents over this issue - Mr Lamb because there are not many students in North Norfolk; Mr Wright because he listened to the large student population in his constituency.

But both accept that this issue has made it hard for many of their colleagues. Their hope is that this debacle will be quickly forgotten - students groups swear it won't.

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