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15 September 2011 10:51 AM

Student unions that ban UKIP accused of 'pig-headed foolishness'

I had forgotten quite how bigoted student unions could be. But bigoted they seem to be because several of them have refused to let UKIP have a stall at their freshers' fairs.

The universities, Birmingham, UCL and Exeter, have all rejected applications from Young Independence, UKIP’s youth wing, which wanted to pay for a stall. That's despite the fact, I am told, that other parties will be allowed to exhibit.

The unions have apparently told Young Independence that they cannot participate because they count as a commercial organisation, as they have not yet officially affiliated student societies with these universities. But then the unions are then using their powers to veto commercial exhibitors by deeming that UKIP doesn't fit their criteria.

Of course, Young Independence would affiliate societies with these student unions, as it has done in other universities. But it needs members first - and it needs stalls to recruit them.

According to Godfrey Bloom, a UKIP MEP (pictured): "Plus ca change it seems, blinded by dripping politics, wrongheaded and anti-democratic as they always were. Student Unions are so behind the curve of opinion that they must be looking at its rear end. Of course they have no idea about how people's minds work. By banning UKIP from Freshers Fairs they merely make YI more attractive.

"So thank you Birmingham student union for your intolerance, cheers Exeter for your pettifogging ways and I raise a glass to UCL for highlighting how low grade and fearful you are. YI will go from strength to strength on the back of this pig-headed foolishness."

I asked the three universities for comment. Birmingham University told me that they won't allow Young Independence to have a stand because it is not run by Birmingham students. But when I asked if a YI member who is an undergraduate at the university could book one, I was told that this, too, would not be possible, as a YI society has not been approved by the union. The other student unions were not immediately able to comment.