Student protesters clash with police in Manchester

Protesters took to the streets in both Manchester and London over increased tuition fees, cuts in public services and the abolition of the education maintenance allowance.

In Manchester, there were 14 arrests and at one point a group of about 150 protesters broke away from the agreed route and ran through the city centre before being brought back under control. There was also anger at the National Union of Students, who some in the crowds claimed had not adequately fought against tuition fees and the EMA abolition.

The president of the NUS Aaron Porter pulled out of speaking after he was surrounded by demonstrators who called for him to quit.

He had been due to address the rally about the effects of spending cuts on young people but was forced to step down after he needed a police escort of a dozen officers to the students’ union building at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Largely good-natured

The largely good-natured marches had been jointly-organised by the NUS and various trades unions.

In London about 3,000 marched from Gower Street to Parliament, stopping outside the Houses of Parliament and later Conservative Party headquarters. Police were low-key. Lessons, they said, had been learned from earlier marches which had turned violent.

But at Tory HQ, the lines of police were solid following the break-in last November by protesters. Then they burst into offices and made their way to the roof, where a fire extinguisher was thrown, just missing police officers.

Late afternoon, protesters decided on some solidarity with those in Egypt and marched to the embassy in Mayfair but they soon dispersed. And then an even smaller group went to Topshop in Oxford Street, which has seen on going protests over disputed claims of tax avoidance.

Scotland Yard said later that there had been four arrests but that the protest had been peaceful.