The president of the National Union of Students has been defeated in an election by a candidate who promised to unite the fractured student body.

In a three-way race, the union’s current vice-president for further education, Shakira Martin, unexpectedly beat Malia Bouattia.

Last year Bouattia became the first black Muslim woman to hold the office, but her term has been dogged by allegations of antisemitism after she called her first university a “Zionist outpost” and criticised “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets” before becoming president.

Martin, 28, who describes herself as a “black, working class single mother”, also saw off the outsider candidate Tom Harwood, who accused the existing leadership of being far left.

Martin gained 402 of the 721 votes cast by delegates at the union’s annual conference in Brighton, with Bouattia taking 272 and Harwood 35.

Martin pitched herself as a centrist and a pragmatist who could heal the wounds of the splintered NUS. Following the election of Bouattia last year there were votes to disaffiliate with the NUS in 26 student unions, with three voting to leave.

As well as a verdict on the candidates, the vote had been billed as a decision on the NUS’s future direction – whether the union should be an organisation with a wide political stance, even extending to foreign policy, or one focused on the practical concerns of the average student.

Malia Bouattia became the first black Muslim woman to become president of the National Union of Students but her term was dogged by allegations of anti-semitism. Photograph: NUS press office

Speaking to the Guardian after the result, Martin said members felt the NUS had been “out of touch and not speaking about issues that students on the ground can relate to” and promised to fight particularly for further education members, who she said made up 70% of the NUS’s membership but were too often sidelined.

One of nine siblings raised in Lewisham, south London by Jamaican parents, Martin left home at 16 to live alone. She previously spoke candidly about learning “business skills” from a short period couriering drugs, dropping out of several higher education courses and having two children before graduating with a diploma in education and training from Southwark College. It was there where she got involved in the NUS, becoming president of the student union.

“I came into this movement with nothing but [the fact of] overcoming adversity,” she said. “[T]here is so much you can draw from that, and that is what I draw from – taking those experiences and putting them into something positive. No matter where you come from we all have our own situations but if you put that energy into something positive you can change the world, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Described by one Bouattia supporter as “the standard-bearer of the Blairite right”, Martin – who said she was undecided about who she would vote for in the general election, although she has voiced support for Jeremy Corbyn in the past – laughed at the comparison. “I’m pragmatic, my policies focus on getting the best deal for students – so I am Shakira,” she said. “I’m centre, I’m up, I’m down, I’ll be wherever I need to be to get the best deal for students. I’m property of no one but my membership of 7 million, which I’m excited to represent.”



Earlier she was loudly cheered by supporters as she delivered her pitch for the job. “You have told me that the NUS needs to change and that when you turn to us for help and support, you don’t get it,” Martin said. “The NUS now is more interested in infighting and factions that fighting for you ... the change starts now and here. We need to get a new NUS.”

She said going back to further education had “given her a chance”, adding: “My union gave me the confidence to work out what was going on around me, to ask questions, to challenge authority. It gave me power.”

The defeat is a disappointing end to an eventful year in office for Bouattia. In October last year she was condemned by the home affairs select committee for “outright racism” over a comment made in 2011 that Birmingham University had become a “Zionist outpost”.

The committee also criticised remarks from a 2014 speech on “Gaza and the Palestinian revolution”, in which Bouattia was recorded as saying: “With mainstream Zionist-led media outlets … resistance is resented as an act of terrorism.”

Her supporters have accused critics of sexism and delivering misinformation, and say she has diversified the union and tackled hate crime.

There were cheers and a standing ovation from Bouattia supporters when their president said that, as the child of refugees who had fled from the civil war in Algeria when she was seven, she had “learned at a young age what it means to make sacrifices for education”. Bouattia said: “I have been harassed, had death threats and been hounded for my beliefs, but my leadership has stayed determined, stayed resilient and stayed strong.”

There was little visible support for outsider Harwood, who criticised the union’s “toxic political culture”. But he was cheered when he said: “When Jewish students say they feel unsafe on this conference floor, then we know there is a problem.”

The Union of Jewish Students welcomed Martin’s victory, the election of a Jewish student, Izzy Lenga, as vice-president for welfare, and the passing of two motions to combat antisemitism.

A spokeswoman said: “We extend heartfelt congratulations to the newly elected NUS president, Shakira Martin, on her election win. In particular, Shakira’s election demonstrates a rejection of the divisive rhetoric used by the current president, Malia Bouattia, whose past antisemitic comments have remained problematic for Jewish students for over a year.”