Police had to rescue Tertiary Education Minister Max Bradford from Canterbury University after he was hounded by a group of angry, chanting students.
Police plucked Mr Bradford and fellow National MPs Gerry Brownlee and David Carter from the campus yesterday after the group had failed to shake off the pursuing protest group.

The protesters and the politicians came into contact several times in some ugly scenes as chanting students, sometimes with linked arms, confronted and surrounded the parliamentarians.

The protest comes a week after students occupied the university's registry building to oppose Canterbury tertiary fees rising 30 per cent next year. Student protests around the country are giving the Government a pre-election headache.

Third-year political science student Gavin Barron, 20, made a complaint to the police yesterday, alleging Mr Bradford grabbed him by the throat and pushed him backwards.

Mr Barron told The Press he had been shouting "Lies, lies lies -- the Government tells us lies" in Mr Bradford's face when he was allegedly grabbed. He admitted he "acted up a bit" as he fell after the alleged assault.

"I accept Mr Bradford might have felt threatened, but we are a non-violent protest group and he should have known that," he said.

Mr Bradford said he had been jostled by an "Alliance rent-a-crowd".

At one point a student, who had been shouting slogans in his face, had stood on his foot and he had "brushed the student aside and kept walking", he said.

The politicians began their day at the university defending their record on education at a rowdy student meeting. They argued that student loans allowed governments to charge lower taxes and blamed university mismanagement for the rising fees. Mr Bradford was often shouted down in some irate exchanges.

His implication that an older student making comments at the meeting had spent all his life at university led to the student, Ross Anderson, 47, approaching Mr Bradford. The Minister appeared to push out towards Mr Anderson in a move which further excited the crowd. Mr Anderson said afterwards he had been pushed and "clobbered by the mike" but said he understood Mr Bradford's reaction and would not complain.

The MPs left the meeting to again be confronted by the students, who surrounded Mr Bradford's car. Mr Bradford said later that at least one started to let down the car's tyres.