A pointed Parliamentary question from David Cameron, the Tory leadership hopeful and shadow education secretary, appears to have backfired. He asked when was it decided that August 1, 2005 should be the deadline by which gap-year students had to obtain a university offer if they were to be exempt from variable fees in 2006? The date was set by an amendment to the Higher Education Act proposed by Lord Michael Forsyth, a Tory peer, Bill Rammell, the Higher Education Minister, replied.