Fighting university top-up fees is set to be the main priority for Britain's youngest MP.

Sarah Teather, who is expected to make her maiden Commons speech on Thursday, told ePolitix.com that the issue will concern both young people and parents considering their children's futures.

At 29, she became Britain's youngest MP when she won the Brent East by-election for the Liberal Democrats. "I feel very lucky to be where I am and I feel conscious that I am here because of the opportunities that I have had," she said.

"It concerns me that those coming behind me will not have those opportunities because of things like top-up fees and tuition fees.

"I'm very conscious that it's a concern of those who are younger than me - and people who are older than me who now have children and are looking at those going through education."

In an interview with this website, she also called for all three of the main political parties to become less dominated by white, middle-aged men.

"Parliament will only function effectively and we can only scrutinise the government properly if you have a cross-section of people. That means men and women from all ethnic minorities. Not just your average middle class, middle aged, middle class, white man," Teather said.

"When you look at the ranks at all the political parties it is one particular type person that dominates. The Labour Party has a huge majority and they've done better at getting more women in but all parties suffer from the same problem."

Teather revealed that adjusting to life as an MP was like starting a small business.

"A journalist said that parliament is 659 one man bands. I think that's very true. I'm now running a small business. I'm responsible for staff and getting an office up and running," she said.

"When you first start, you start from scratch. You don't have an office, either in the constituency or in Westminster. For the first month we were operating out of my old Ford Fiesta and a friend's kitchen. I was storing House of Commons paper in the vegetable rack for want of anywhere else to put it."

Teather defended the Commons' use of ancient traditions and language but said more modernisation was needed.

"I'm not a complete anti-traditionalist, I don't feel the need to abolish tradition for the sake of it but there are an awful lot of things in this place where I look around and think 'there must be an easier way'," she said.

"We do seem to move the long way round and I can't quite believe that there aren't easier, cheaper and quicker ways of getting a job done and making it more effective to scrutinise the government."

She is also beginning to get to grips with the maze of corridors that make up the Palace of Westminster.

"I'm not getting lost any more which is a good start. Or only when I try new routes. I'm getting there I think," she said.

Teather argued that the big issues for the "children of the '70s" are not the class-based politics of the past.

"For my generation, I think many of us are pre-occupied by the freedom and civil liberties issues. The old politics of left and right has changed," she said.

"We're pre-occupied by issues like freedom of the individual and freedom of expression. Those are the things that the government and the Conservatives have moved away from."

And she rejected the idea that young people are apathetic about politics.

"They are apathetic about the party political system but that's very different. Young people are extremely interested in current affairs and political issues. But they may choose to express that interest in a different way by joining a pressure group or a local charity," Teather said.

"Young people are still very interested in campaigning. If you look at the peace march back in February, there were an enormous number of young people who took part."