Over 170 arrested in fresh wave of protests

Thousands of young activists took to the streets despite freezing temperatures in Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Brighton, Bristol, Newcastle, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield and Edinburgh to protest against plans to almost triple fees to as much as £9,000 a year.

According to Scotland Yard, of the 153 arrests made in the capital, 146 occurred after a group refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration.

Channel 4 News Home Affairs Correspondent, Andy Davies, said there were 200 protesters left in Trafalgar Square by 7pm.

A police statement revealed that 139 people were arrested for breach of the peace and seven for violent disorder and seven people were arrested earlier in connection with the protest (two for public order offences, one for common assault, one for obstructing police and three for criminal damage.

Windows were smashed and missiles thrown at police, who charged at protesters with batons.

A police officer and a woman protester were taken to hospital with head injuries in London while another protester injured his arm in a fall.

In Bristol, 10 people were arrested out of the approximately 1,000 protesters, five were arrested in Manchester and in Liverpool there were two arrests.

In Brighton, police said about 600 protesters marched through the city before attempting to force their way into Hove town hall, but no arrests were made.

And approximately 50 protestors managed to enter the main chamber of Bristol City Council, although no arrests were made there either.

Elsewhere, activists were praised by police for the peaceful nature of their demonstrations.

At Queen’s University, Belfast, around 25 students staged a peaceful sit-in protest outside the office of the vice chancellor Peter Gregson.

Around 300 students marched through the streets of Edinburgh, with demonstrators gathered at Bristo Square before heading down the Royal Mile to a rally outside the Scottish Parliament.

Hundreds of students convened outside Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s office in Sheffield and there were other peaceful demonstrations in Newcastle, Leeds, Oxford and Cambridge.

Last night, Business Secretary Vince Cable was accused of adopting a “duvet strategy” over the planned rise in tuition fees.

Shadow business secretary John Denham said their posiition was to “pull the bedclothes over our heads and stay there until this nightmare is over”.

Mr Cable, the architect of the tuition fees increase plans, said yesterday that he may abstain when the Commons is asked to approve the hike.

Under pressure for reneging on a pre-election pledge to oppose any rise in fees, he said he was prepared to sit out the vote on his own policy if other Liberal Democrat MPs did the same.

Lib Dem parliamentary candidates signed a pledge to oppose any hike in university fees only for the coalition Government to decide that the rise was necessary.