A BOLTON schoolgirl took Tony Blair to task on Monday night in front of a TV audience of millions.

Ashley Gavin, aged 15, a Thornleigh Salesian College pupil, appeared on the BBC 2 Newsnight programme as part of a panel questioning the Prime Minister over his plan to introduce variable university top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year.

She read out part of a letter she wrote to Mr Blair in which she called him a "liar".

"In your manifesto you promised not to touch university fees," she said in the letter.

"You are now proved a liar because you and the Labour Party have gone against your word."

The threat of huge debts made her think twice about going to university, she said, and she would consider a university close to home so she could live with her parents and save money on accommodation -- but none of the local ones was rated highly for the degree she wanted to do.

Mr Blair replied that her family would have nothing to pay while she was at university and she would not have to pay "anything" unless she was earning money.

He added: "I think that's not a bad deal, quite frankly."

Medical student Julia Prague, aged 19, a second year student in London, was judged to have made the most dramatic attack on Mr Blair during his Newsnight grilling by students, parents, teachers and children.

She challenged Mr Blair over whether it was fair for doctors to start their careers saddled with huge debts.

She said: "I'm from an average middle-class background, I went to the local comprehensive, I am the first in my family to go to university and I think it will be students from my sort of background who will be most deterred because they will know they won't get any financial help such as you are suggesting for poor students. They don't have vast amounts of inherited wealth, therefore they will be deterred from especially doing long courses such as medicine."

The Prime Minister responded: "Surely it helps middle class families that the system of repayment is going to be far more generous.

"There would also be a cut-off date after 25 years when outstanding debts would be cancelled," he added.