Students go on the rampage in protest over tuition fees

RIOTING students went on the rampage as a massive demonstration in London against funding cuts and tuition fees rises descended into chaos, protesters storming the Tory Party headquarters and clashing with police.

Millbank Tower, the home of Conservative Party in central London, became overrun with protesters who smashed windows, occupied the roof and set fire to placards outside.

A number of police officers were injured as they attempted to control the violence and measures were taken to protect MI5's building on the other side of the River Thames during the height of the unrest.

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More than 50,000 students and lecturers had taken to the streets of the capital yesterday to protest against the Government's plans to allow tuition fees to be trebled and slash university budgets.

Organisers of the demonstration last night condemned "a violent minority" for hijacking the event.

Hundreds of workers were evacuated from Millbank Tower, which also houses other organisations including Government agencies, and the violence was condemned by Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Mr Johnson said: "I am appalled that a small minority have today shamefully abused their right to protest. This is intolerable and all those involved will be pursued and they will face the full force of the law."

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The protest, which is the largest to date against the coalition Government, was mounted by the National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) against plans to cut university funding and allow fees to be trebled from their current capped level of 3,290.

A Tory party spokesman said: "Everyone has the right to protest but they also have a responsibility to do so in the appropriate way. We thoroughly condemn the use of violence."

University teaching budgets are set to be cut by almost 3bn over the next four years, only science, technology, engineering and maths subjects continuing to receive Government support.

The cuts, which were announced in the comprehensive spending review, will mean universities will need to more than double their fees in order to receive the same level of income they currently receive.

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NUS president Aaron Porter said the violence was not part of the organisers' plans, blaming the trouble on a "small minority" who he believed had arranged it beforehand. "We talked about the need to prevent anything like this and how important it was to act in a responsible way," he said. "Unfortunately a minority have undermined us."

A Scotland Yard spokesman said more than 35 people had been arrested for a range of offences and were in custody.

Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of the Conservative Party, was in the building when the protest broke out and said that such violence "helps nobody". She defended the party's stance on tuition fees, saying that "difficult decisions" had to be made in "difficult times".

Much of yesterday's anger was targeted at Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats who campaigned for the abolition of fees while in opposition and signed pledges vowing to oppose any increase in this Parliament.

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The Sheffield Hallam MP was mocked in the House of Commons yesterday by Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman who said: "In April this year the Deputy Prime Minister said that it was his aim to end university tuition fees. Can he update the House on how his plan is progressing?"

However the Liberal Democrat leader said the Government's plans to charge up to 9,000 a year in fees from 2012 was a "fair and progressive solution to a very difficult problem".

NUS leader Mr Porter warned the Liberal Democrats they would lose the support of a generation of young people if they continued to back the tuition fee hike. "MPs must now think twice before going ahead with this outrageous policy," he said.

"We will initiate a right to recall against any MP that breaks their pledge on tuition fees."

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Thousands of students had travelled from universities and colleges across Yorkshire to take part in the protest which marched past the Houses of Parliament before gathering for a rally at Millbank.

The UCU's regional official for Yorkshire, Mark Oley, said at least five coachloads of students had travelled to London.

Clegg faces backlash: Page 4; Comment: Page 12.

John Roberts

flashpoint: A demonstrator kicks at the windows of the Conservative Party's headquarters in Millbank Tower, central London, as yesterday's protests turned ugly.picture: dominic lipinskii/pa wire