Higher education minister Bill Rammell talks to ePolitix.com at the Labour Party conference in Manchester.

Question: Have the chancellor and prime minister's speeches this week done enough to end the rows over the Labour leadership of the past few weeks?

Bill Rammell: I think Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have been the best partnership in a generation in British politics.

I thought the chancellor's speech was superb yesterday. The prime minister has taken that on today.

I personally think Gordon Brown will succeed Tony Blair. I think he should do.

But I think all of us need to recognise that we need to be a united party.

There has been a very, very strong sense of unity this week and I think that is very welcome.

Question: In that sense, do you think in a way the bloodletting of the last month has helped clear the air in the party over these issues?

Bill Rammell: I'm not sure I would actually say that what happened with some of my backbench colleagues was desirable, because I think there is a concern that divided parties lose support.

But what I do know is that the outcome of the process is a very strong desire for unity right the way across the party.

Question: You are one of the group of younger ministers often talked about as the Labour leaders of the future, supposedly having several great policy ideas to come forward. Have you noticed a lot of those in conference this week?

Bill Rammell: Yes, I think there has been a hugely important agenda. There is a real sense in which yes, we have achieved an enormous amount, but we are not resting on our laurels.

Take my own area of responsibility for higher education. We have achieved a huge amount but work we are doing at the moment is focusing on how we can get more people into the higher education system.

And my view is that the great expansion of the future will actually not come through the traditional 18 to 21-year-olds going to university it will actually be through the workplace learning route. People, maybe a little bit later on in life, going back to higher education, being supported by their employers and doing it in a very creative way.

I think if we do that, we will not only upskill within the workplace, we are also much more likely to achieve our widening participation objective.

Question: Top-up fees have come into force this university term. How long do you think the £3,000 cap will remain in place?

Bill Rammell: Just as you heard at this meeting here tonight, my answers on this are fairly boring as they are the same ones I have been giving for over a year.

We have said, since we passed the legislation, that we are going to see the first three years of operation. We will then have an independent commission to look at the performance of the system in 2009 and then we will make judgments about what we do.

Question: Do you think this policy is going to do anything to help attract young voters back to Labour?

Bill Rammell: Well I think if we can make the case for what we are doing, I think it can do. Again I said at this meeting here this evening, we are putting right some of the mistakes that have been made in the past.

I think it was wrong to ask students to pay tuition fees before they went to university and I think it was wrong to scrap the student grant.

Both of those issues are being put right in this new system. And particularly there is a lot more support for poorer students. I think that is the right thing to do and I think it will be popular.

More on this interview: MP3 audio file