NUS President
She was elected president in 2004 in an extremely close contest, which she won by only two votes after six rounds of transfers, having lost the 2003 election by only three votes to the incumbent candidate. Although a long standing member of the Labour paty, she ran on a leftist platform as a member of the Campaign for Free Education (CFE) criticising the NUS proximity to Tony Blair's Labour government, particularly on the issue of tuition fees. After being elected she pushed through a process of NUS reform which she claimed was necessary to save the organisation from a looming financial crisis.
There is some confusion about her political affiliations as president. She left the AWL long before being elected; during her first year in office, she disbanded CFE, as a result of reinstating free education policy. It was at this point that the AWL and other left-wing activists such as the CFE's successor organisation Education Not for Sale came into sharp opposition to her.
In 2005 she stood for re-election without any description, winning by the largest margin in NUS history. Other candidates standing included: Conservative Future's candidate Michael Champion and the Socialist Workers' Student Society candidate Suzie Wylie.
Read more about this topic: Kat Fletcher
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