MPs are demanding student tuition fees are capped and a graduate tax introduced to allow more Bradford students to go to university.

Research shows that school-leavers living in parts of Tong are less likely to go to university than anywhere else in the country.

Only 3.72 per cent of youngsters in parts of the council ward, where more than half of households are on low incomes, made it on to higher education – the worst record in the country.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer and Bradford West MP Marsha Singh fear many are unable to go on to further education because of high costs.

Student fees are up to £3,225 a year in England but universities are lobbying the Government to lift the cap and allow them to set fees individually.

The NUS and many MPs fear this will lead to only the richest students being able to choose where to study.

A parliamentary petition is supporting a call for a graduate tax where they would contribute to a national trust between 0.3 per cent and 2.5 per cent of their salaries each month for 20 years.

Mr Singh said: “A graduate tax would be pay as you earn and not leave people thinking how will they find thousands to go to the university of their choice.”

Mrs Cryer said: ‘‘Capping fees and introducing a graduate tax would help more students from the Bradford district go to university.”

According to a recent report from the Office of National Statistics in parts of Eccleshill only 6.3 per cent of under-21s continue to university, 6.9 per cent in both Little Horton and Thornton, seven per cent in Bowling, and 7.4 per cent in Keighley West. Almost every teenager – 98.4 per cent – in the affluent area of Ilkley made it to university.