A Durham University student has won election to the National Union of Students (NUS) on a manifesto promising overthrow the Tory government via “violent revolution” and make “sweeping agrarian reform”
Tom Harwood, 20, swept to victory with an outlandishly “ridiculous campaign” designed to lampoon the NUS, which he called a “ridiculous organisation”.
Promises to overthrow ISIS through NUS botcotts, take out the rubbish, and install a 127ft statue of NUS President Malia Bouattia are mixed in with subliminal messages declaring “Harambe would have voted for Tom Harwood” in a 90 second campaign video.
Turning serious for a moment he then declares: “If you vote for me, I’ll vote against all irrelevant, aggrandising, self-defeating NUS policies that only serve to discredit students as a whole.”
The maverick approach gained widespread support from the student body – Harwood more than twice as many votes as the next most successful candidate.
During the campaign he described the NUS as a “redundant organisation that has been hijacked by people with pretty extreme politics that aren’t representative of students as a whole”.
I love my fans pic.twitter.com/agNYnvUxCt
— Tom Harwood (@tomhfh) September 2, 2016
The NUS has been dogged by accusations of anti-Semitism this year, following the election of Bouattia as president. Bouattia has proved highly controversial thanks to her description of Birmingham University as “something of a Zionist outpost” and for referring to “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets”.
The Union of Jewish students has flatly refused to work with her.
Speaking to the Huffington Post Harwood said: “I want the NUS to take a step back and ask itself if it is representing all students.
“I released another video last week highlighting just how out of touch the NUS leadership is. It seems as though they all come from a very narrow, very unrepresentative section of the ideological spectrum.”
An NUS spokeswoman said: “NUS is a diverse organisation made up of a range of interesting people and we look forward to Tom’s contributions.”
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