The National Union of Students is braced for a new wave of political attacks after electing radical left-wing activist Malia Bouattia as president, one of its leaders has said.

Ms Bouattia¡¯s shock victory at the NUS¡¯ national conference in Brighton last week ¨C beating current president Megan Dunn by 372 votes to 328 ¨C led to vehement criticism of the student movement.

Labour MP Wes Streeting, a former NUS president, tweeted that the organisation was ¡°lost¡± and ¡°no longer represents students well¡±, while several Jewish student society leaders have criticised Ms Bouattia¡¯s ¡°past rhetoric¡± on the Israel-Palestine issue.

There have already been growing calls from within students¡¯ unions at some universities to split from the NUS because of Ms Bouattia's election and the way that votes at the conference are currently conducted.

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Ms Bouattia, the first black female president of the NUS, and the first Muslim, has also faced allegations of anti-Semitism regarding a comment made in 2011 that the University of Birmingham ¨C her alma mater ¨C was ¡°something of a Zionist outpost¡±.

She addressed these claims in her hustings speech on 20 April, saying that she knew ¡°too well the damage done by racism and persecution¡± as her family had been forced to flee war-torn Algeria when she was a child.

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¡°I have a long track record of opposing racism and discrimination in all its forms and actively campaigning against it,¡± she later said, adding that she recognises that ¡°Jewish students on campuses and elsewhere continue to face anti-Semitism¡±.

Ms Bouattia declined to be interviewed by ̽»¨ÊÓƵ, but Sorana Vieru, who was re-elected as vice-president (higher education) at the conference, said that she expected the NUS to face many more attacks over the next 12 months.

¡°The election has moved the NUS to the left, so we expect more of a reaction and more threats as a result of our perceived [militancy],¡± Ms Vieru said.

Ms Bouattia¡¯s strong support for the controversial advocacy group Cage while she was black students¡¯ officer is also likely to invite further criticism.

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Prime minister David Cameron claimed in July 2015 that the NUS¡¯ links with Cage ¨C which describes itself as ¡°an independent advocacy organisation working to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror¡± ¨C brought ¡°shame¡± on the union, despite Ms Dunn¡¯s insistence that it did not work with the group.

However, Ms Bouattia has frequently shared a platform with Cage outreach director Moazzam Begg, the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, on the Students Not Suspects campus tour against the Prevent anti-terrorism agenda, from which Ms Dunn withdrew the union¡¯s support over its links to Cage.

¡°[The] NUS Black Students [campaign has] that policy [regarding Cage], and I guess we have disagreed on tactics regarding Prevent,¡± said Ms Vieru, who suggested that a vote was needed at executive level to resolve the issue.

Despite the disagreement within the NUS over Cage, the union had made ¡°massive progress¡± in fighting the Prevent rules imposed on universities as part of last year¡¯s Counter-Terrorism and Security Act, Ms Vieru said.

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¡°People are talking about it on and off campus much more¡­and the campaign [against Prevent] has got a lot more vocal,¡± she said. ¡°Our campaign has got a lot of profile and has obviously rattled a few cages.¡±

jack.grove@tesglobal.com