A video has emerged of students at Brunel University giving the rest of the world a masterclass in how to deal with the Mail Online columnist Katie Hopkins: don’t silence her, or threaten her – just turn your backs on her.



The former Apprentice contestant turned professional troll – who once called drowning Mediterranean migrants “cockroaches” for daring to try to find a place of safety – was booked as a panellist at the university’s 50th anniversary debate on the future of the welfare state.

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The university lecture hall was packed ahead of the rightwing columnist’s appearance on Monday night. As she made her opening comments, however, students stood and turned their backs on her, before filing out in protest.

The inclusion of Hopkins on the west London university’s debate panel was met with widespread outcry from the student body. But the union did not want to undermine the principle of free speech by calling for her to be banned from the event. Instead, they came up with the ultimate show of peaceful disapproval: organised back-turning.

Union president Ali Milani explained in a blogpost: “It is important to note that the conversation at no point has been about banning Ms Hopkins from speaking on campus, or denying her right to speak. It is instead about saying it is distasteful and incongruous for our university, as part of a 50th celebration event, to provide a platform to someone who adds nothing to the intellectual or academic discourse; and an individual who publicly utters such overtly bigoted views.” Milani said “around 50%” of the audience were left in the auditorium after the walkout.



Joe Nicell, Brunel SU’s communications manager, told the Independent that about 50 people left the auditorium when Hopkins began her speech. He said: “It was mainly that we didn’t feel that she fitted the debate and she wasn’t the right person to be speaking.”

As the video attracted nearly 70,000 views on Thursday, Hopkins tweeted a response to the “Offended Young Nation”. She wrote: “Many thanks to the students of #brunelmassdebates for getting me trending on Facebook. You rock. #bruneldebates.”

Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) Many thanks to the students of #brunelmassdebates for getting me trending on Facebook. You rock. #bruneldebates pic.twitter.com/1bhnygWYHv

She later tweeted: “Looking forward to speaking at Cambridge Union next week #brunelmassdebates.”

The Brunel debate, which posed the question ‘Does the welfare state have a place in 2015?’ and had the Guardian’s public services editor David Brindle as chairman, was the first in a series to celebrate Brunel University’s 50th anniversary year. Sitting alongside Hopkins on the panel were the university’s emeritus professor of social policy, Peter Beresford, campaigner for social justice Rev Paul Nicolson, and Harriet Sergeant, a research fellow for the Centre for Policy Studies.

The university said it recognised the students’ right to stage a peaceful protest and said the rest of the debate was “passionate” and the remaining audience “played a key role”.