England's Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell, stressed the importance of confronting extremism through open debate in a lecture delivered on Tuesday 27 November.

Mr Rammell addressed the Fabian Society in London, criticising the National Union of Students’ (NUS) No-Platform policy that many student unions across the UK have adopted.

Mr Rammell said: “Let's give people the chance to challenge their views through free debate. Not the criminals, but those whose words remain within the law, whether they come from extreme religious groups, the BNP, the Animal Liberation Front or elsewhere.

“And let their views be exposed and challenged for the falsehoods they are. By not allowing them to be heard we undermine the unsaid.”

At the NUS Annual Conference a decree was passed that refuses to invite racists and fascists to NUS events. The policy dictates that the Elected Committee will not share a platform with these people.

The NUS responded to Mr Rammell’s speech by stating the importance of protecting students' from racists and fascists.

Gemma Tumelty, President of NUS, said: “Bill Rammell's comments about No-Platform policies amount to a red herring. Believing that everybody has the right to express an opinion is very different from proactively providing a high profile platform to racists and fascists at an esteemed institution.

"Wherever the BNP is active, racist attacks and other hate crimes increase. That is why we believe that it is unacceptable to give racists and fascists a platform of academic respectability which they do not deserve.

"Our primary concern has to be the safety of our members, many of whom are foreign nationals, or from black and ethnic minority communities.”

However, Mr Rammell claimed that if universities do not confront the dangers of extremism, they jeopardise the safety of the students that they are legally bound to protect.

Mr Rammell said that in effect universities are tolerating “those who incite or carry out violence in the name of abhorrent views.”

He emphasised the importance of students debating controversial issues in order to minimise the subversive effects of extremist groups.

Mr Rammell continued: “And in any case, banning extreme groups pushes them underground, into covert operations which operate in secret, or in intimidating environments.

“Universities must be open to the light of free debate and free inquiry. Because if they are not, they will become places of darkness, obscurantism and fear.”

A spokesman for Universities-Scotland told The Journal: “It is very important for universities to keep this matter in perspective

“However it is essential Higher Education creates space for free debate and discussion.”

Conversely, Josh MacAlister, President of Edinburgh University Students Association, believes that a student’s right to feel secure in their environment is paramount.

Mr MacAlister told The Journal: "Bill Rammell is wrong on this. I personally think that the right of individuals or groups of people to be free from intimidation and feel confident in education is more important that the privilege of others to propagate racist and intolerant views which often incite hatred and violence.

“Freedom of speech is a democratic right and therefore it should only be afforded to those who practice the spirit of democracy. The BNP is a violent party which undermines democratic involvement in the UK.”

The Minister’s speech has come at a time where the validity of the NUS as a representative and policy-making organisation is being undermined by student unions across the UK.

Students at the University of East Anglia (UEA) rejected the NUS ‘No Platform’ policy after the Oxford Union invited controversial figures, Nick Griffin and David Irving to speak to a freedom of speech debate.

75 per cent of students at UEA voted against the NUS policy. Dennis Hayes, founder of Academics for Academic Freedom, said the result was a defining moment in student politics:

“It shows that ordinary students don't need to be told by the NUS, or anyone else, who they should listen to and what they should think. With similar movements in favour of free speech happening in other universities this is an important step forward."

Mr Hayes continued: “This is the sort of 'student voice' academics should listen to.”