Cambridge Defend Education stage protests in and around the UniversityCambridge News

Police approached an activist based in Cambridge and asked him to spy on student political groups, the Guardian has reported.

The activist, who is involved with various student groups, did not wish to be identified and is referred to in the report at John Armstrong. He is not a student at the University but has lived in the area for many years and has lots of friends who are students. After being approached initially by an officer, Armstrong secretly recorded their second meeting and passed the video footage on to the Guardian. 

The officer, who has been given the pseudonym Peter Smith, is part of a covert unit that monitors political activism. Smith expressed concerns in the video about the impact of student political activism on the wider community.

The groups that Smith says are of specific interest include the Cambridge branches of English Defence League, the Unite Against Fascism, UK Uncut and “student union type stuff”. He is filmed asking Armstrong to name students that will be involved in any potential protests, and to inform him of how many people will be attending and what vehicles they will be travelling in.

However in a statement today Rachel Wenstone, the Deputy President of the National Union of Students called the revelations "an absolute scandal" and said: “To group the activities of hardworking students’ unions within the same realm as those of the EDL is grossly offensive."

"Students’ unions do fantastic work to defend the rights of students in colleges and universities and these measures completely undermine students’ civil liberties, their right to protest, and to work collectively to improve society", she said.

The Cambridge University Students' Union expressed similar concerns: "We are alarmed by news of police surveillance on Cambridge student activists. CUSU believes that all individuals have the right to protest peacefully.

"CUSU has always constructively engaged with the police when planning or supporting protests and demonstrations. As such, CUSU finds it absurd that our members should be the focus of these investigations.

"Tactics such as these are not only intrusive, they also waste time targeting groups which are involved in making important and positive change in our society. We condemn the actions of the police in this matter and hope the Government will look critically at the use of surveillance measures by UK security forces."

When Armstrong mentions his involvement in the occupation of the University Old Schools Site, which was a protest in 2010 against the raising of tuition fees, Smith said that this is the kind of thing he is interested in. He emphasised to Armstrong his desire to gauge the “feeling” of protests from a student perspective. The 2010 occupation was organised by Cambridge Defend Education, a campaign group that opposes cuts to education funding.

He offered to cover the activist’s expenses, but told him that “it is not about rewarding you financially”. He also told Armstrong: “You are not doing it for the money, but some people do”. He advises Armstrong to “try not to think too deeply about it…if you think too much about it you’ll start tying yourself up in knots.”

When contacted by the Guardian, a spokesperson for Cambridgeshire police said: “Officers use covert tactics to gather intelligence, in accordance with the law, to assist in the prevention and detection of criminal activity.”

However the Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC) questioned the legitimacy of the police's concerns. In a statement that called today's news "deeply concerning", CULC stated: "Cambridgeshire police’s initial suggestion that this kind of monitoring is in the interests of national security simply isn’t credible. If the police actually have a genuine concern about a political group they should be upfront about it and not resort to creating a network of informants to fish for information."

In response to these revelations, Cambridge Defend Education released the following statement: "Cambridge Defend Education is not surprised to find itself the subject of police surveillance. As we have seen, the police will go to any lengths to gain ‘intelligence’ on activist groups...It is telling that the police regard their activities as completely legitimate and legal".

"This constitutes part of a wider attempt by the police, university management and the government to criminalise and suppress dissent within universities across the country."

"We refuse to be intimidated by these coercive and underhand tactics, and will continue to resist - in our universities and on the streets."