Student protests force Nick Clegg off his bike

Ahead of today’s planned mass protests at the rise in student tuition fees, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has been advised to quit riding to work, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Clegg regularly cycles from his South West London home in Putney to the Cabinet Office on Downing Street, but security advisors have warned that the intense level of feeling over the protests could lead to him being knocked from his bike, or pelted with objects.

As head of the Liberal Democrat Party Clegg has come in for fierce criticism for the considerable rise in tuition fees after a pre-Election promise to scrap them altogether. Clegg is likely to use his ministerial car instead of his bike for the near future.

Ahead of the General Election, the Liberal Democrats told BikeBiz that they would introduce cycle measures that would benefit bike dealers.

At the time, a Party spokesperson said: “We are committed to including the promotion of safer cycling and walking in all local transport plans and promoting ‘Liveable Cities’ with requirements for decentralised public services like schools and hospitals and safe walking and cycling routes in new developments."