A HAMPSHIRE councillor has advised students to get Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne recalled for failing to keep promises he made to voters.

Eastleigh South Labour councillor Brian Norgate claimed that he had heard Mr Huhne on several occasions during his general election campaign make promises about not voting for a tuition fee rise or an increase in VAT.

Although Mr Huhne could not fly back from crucial climate change talks in Mexico to make his vote in the tuition fees hike, he had backed the coalition Government’s plans, which will see students pay £9,000 a year from 2012.

Cllr Norgate said: “He says one thing to get elected, gets in power and he will change everything to suit.

“Everything he promised during the election goes out the window.

“The students should ask for him to be recalled because he made a clear commitment – you can’t go from one side to the other.”

Cllr Norgate said that he had attended hustings at Barton Peveril College and Holy Cross Church in Eastleigh during the May run-up to the general election, where Mr Huhne had stated his position.

He said: “Chris Huhne promised students that he wouldn’t vote for any rise in tuition fees and he promised them that he believed they should get rid of student fees altogether.

“It’s not just the students’ fees, it’s the VAT as well.

“He knew full well, as did the Labour party, that the debt had to be paid off.

“He knew full well what he was doing. He wanted MPs recalled if they don’t honour their pledges – he hasn’t honoured his pledge.

“I would say he has betrayed students.”

Mr Huhne has previously told the Daily Echo that he supported the proposals, saying that they represented a fairer system even if it was not what they had initially hoped for.

He said that he had hoped in vain to strike an agreement with a Labour MP to stay away from the vote in a method called pairing.

He said: “These vital talks have denied me the chance to support the coalition Government’s progressive proposals to give financial security to our world class universities sector and make the repayment system for students fairer.”

Meanwhile police said that they had made 33 arrests after protests in London descended into violence and vandalism.

Rampaging protesters attacked a car in which the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were making their way to an engagement in central London.

The car was kicked, daubed in paint and a rear window shattered as trouble spread across the capital.

Large parts of the city became a battleground, with benches set alight in Parliament Square, Winston Churchill’s statue vandalised, and windows smashed at the Treasury and the Supreme Court.

Twelve police officers and 43 protesters were injured.