POLICE officers armed with Tasers were sent to shield Tory Universities Minister David Willetts from students angry over his cuts to disabled learners’ funding on Thursday evening. 

One photo of the confrontation at University College London (UCL) clearly shows a police officer reaching for his weapon. 

He was one of four officers sent to help security guards stop a group of 40 students from forcing their way into a talk by Mr Willetts at the university, the London Student newspaper reported. 

Dozens more officers were called later when the minister’s car was surrounded by students as he tried to make a getaway. 

Mr Willetts faced a humiliating wait for the police in his blue official Jaguar as students protesting over his decision to cut the Disability Learning Allowance swarmed around it. 

They were moved back by the police but then staged a running blockade of Mr Willett’s car as it drove down nearby streets. 

Student leader Michael Chessum said the police resorted to “pub-brawling tactics” to get the Tory out. 

“They were pretty thuggish,” the University of London Union president told the Star yesterday. 

“People were trying to lie down in front of the car. 

“The police were pretty horrible, hitting people, kicking, that sort of stuff.”

But the Metropolitan Police confirmed there were no arrests and Mr Chessum said he believed officers were told not to detain anyone. 

He said: “When Willetts got away they were obviously under orders to get out of there. 

“There was a clearly high-level decision preventing them being as bad as before. That said, they were pretty nasty.”

Earlier Mr Chessum and other student officers who had pre-registered to attend Mr Willetts’ talk interrupted it by unfurling a banner that read: “Save Disabled Students’ Allowance.”

UCL students’ union education officer Keir Gallagher told attendees the cut would make university “for the privileged few.”

Mr Willetts can be seen sitting awkwardly at the front the theatre as Mr Gallagher gives his alternative talk in a video of the incident. 

The student ended by saying: “We can’t accept these cuts and we should not be inviting people like this into our university.”