Top police chief warns of more student disorder on the streets

Metropolitan Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson admitted officers had failed to correctly assess the mood of protesters in London before the riot at the Tory headquarters at two weeks ago but did not make that mistake on Wednesday. The force deployed more than 800 officers – almost four times as many as on November 10.

Potential targets for occupation, including the headquarters of the Liberal Democrats, were encircled by officers as reserves surrounded Trafalgar Square.

Sir Paul said the Met had been reducing the numbers of resources deployed to tackle demonstrations.

He said: "Regrettably we are going to have to review that. We are going to have to take a more cautious approach.

"The bottom line is we did not get it right two weeks ago and in my opinion we did get it right on Wednesday. We did put an enormous amount more assets out but we did get it right."

The protests, which in London saw 35 people arrested and seven police officers injured, were described by veteran Labour MP David Winnick as "marvellous".

Of the 35 arrested, nine were held for vandalising and looting a police carrier left stranded in the centre of Whitehall.

Sir Paul said there were no police officers in the carrier and it was abandoned because of the risk of getting it back.

He added: "It is beyond irritating, it is disgraceful, but had we deployed to that carrier we would have achieved nothing. We could have injured protesters and police officers."

Sir Paul defended the decision to "kettle" thousands of protesters, including many school pupils, for hours in Whitehall, close to the entrance to Downing Street.

He said when several large-scale marches linked up in Whitehall police wanted to stop them getting into Parliament Square and beyond.

The stark warning came as Downing Street indicated a crunch Commons vote on the proposals to raise student fees would be held before Christmas.

Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman said it was "probably a fair assumption" that MPs would be asked to back the measure within weeks.

The issue will also be on the Commons agenda next Tuesday in a debate called by Labour.

Shadow Commons leader Hilary Benn said the early vote on the fees rise was an indication that the Government was "desperate to try and get this out of the way".

During a debate on the university funding crisis hosted by Universities UK, Labour Shadow Business Secretary John Denham said Parliament must not be "railroaded" into making a hasty decision.

He said there was much detail to be worked out, including whether there would be a statutory commitment to lift the fee cap in line with earnings every five years. Mr Denham said otherwise in 2022 graduates could be forced to pay off their student loans even if they were on the minimum wage.

Universities Minister David Willetts defended the proposals, saying: "Of course, we have to take the immediate decisions on the fees cap very promptly. That's because of the long run-in times and information requirements of prospective students."

But he said he was "absolutely committed to delivering a stable transition into the new programme" and the policy delivers the "necessary commitment to getting a grip on the public finances while also ensuring that no student going to university has to pay any money upfront".

Occupations at Yorkshire universities

HUNDREDS of students have occupied university buildings in Yorkshire and some protests were likely to go into a second night.

On Wednesday students at Leeds University occupied one of the main buildings on the campus and last night around 100 protesters were understood to still be in the Michael Sadler Building, reportedly demanding that the vice chancellor should pledge that any cuts will not be implemented.

One of the occupiers, student Ian Pattison, posted on a website: "I realise you can't throw a protective blanket around education, but we want to put pressure on the management here that they won't just bulldoze the government cuts through."

In Sheffield a sit-in that also started on Wednesday in the Hicks building on Sheffield University's campus was finally broken up last night after a fire alarm was activated.

Second year politics student Alistair Holmes said there were more than 100 protesters in the building.

He said: "We knew that the fire alarm was probably a method just to get us out, but we felt that we had made our point."