Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence party (UKIP), has cancelled his talk in Cambridge, which was scheduled for today at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS).

It is unclear whether the event was cancelled as a result of collective student outrage and organised protests.

The CUSU Women’s Campaign had organized a mass protest to be held outside the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms at 6pm, when Farage was scheduled to speak. Around 30 people attended an organising committee at King’s College on Wednesday, including Dr John Regan of Clare Hall.

CUSU Women’s Officer Amelia Horgan chaired the meeting, and said that the Women’s Campaign were taking charge of the protest as it is the only CUSU ‘liberation campaign’ headed by a full time sabbatical officer.

A Facebook event was also been set up by non-Cambridge students. The event, “Tell Nigel Farage (UKIP) that he is NOT welcome in Cambridge!” encouraged people to “bring/make banners and placards if you can and also any noise making equipment like drums, megaphones, whistles etc.”. Over 200 people had clicked attending.

Professor Jonathan Haslam invited Farage to speak at the POLIS “some months ago before he was so topical”.

He was intially unfazed by the idea of protesters, saying that “if students disagree vehemently, then they should go out, cancel their holidays and canvass against UKIP in the marginal constituencies with some understanding of what draws the downtrodden to it as an alternative to the usual merry-go-round of the usual two parties.”

He emphasised that the idea of politicians visiting as “good for them and good for us”, emphasising that “the study of politics is not to be done solely from books”.

However, he emailed a Varsity journalist on Wednesday night with the message “entire event cancelled”, providing no other explanation.

Haslam is also understood to have invited Farage to dine at formal hall at his college, Corpus Christi, after the event, although this has also been cancelled.
The move outraged students as UKIP remain a deeply divisive.

Just a few days ago Farage angered HIV/AIDS campaigners by remarking that the UK Border Office should be able to “control the quantity and quality of people who come... people who do not have HIV”.

He went on to state that he would also extend the ban to “people with tuberculosis too”.