Students have written an open letter to stop Katie Hopkins coming to Exeter

It seems like it's Exeter's dirty little secret, but unfortunately Katie Hopkins is an alumna of this uni. Along with several others who we would much rather brag about, J.K I'm looking at you.

Well in what seems like a controversial move by the Debating Society, they have invited Katie back to her old stomping ground to debate whether a state should prioritise its own citizens over others.

Katie's planned debate has been met with fierce opposition from university students with many taking to Twitter to voice their opposition.

Malaka Shwaikh, the former Vice President of postgrad research, said: "Well done again Exeter for providing an inclusive environment where everyone feels safe and unthreatened."

The uni's response has been to reassure critics that Katie Hopkins will be held to the same level as another guest speaker or debater. They said, "we expect students, staff and visitors to ensure freedom of speech is within the law.

"All speakers must demonstrate sensitivity to the diversity of our University community and show respect to all." And then they helpfully provided a link to their page on freedom of speech – I wonder if Ms Hopkins will have read that one.

The organisers have also been forced to clarify that one of the debaters, who is a member of UNICEF, will be speaking "as a humanitarian and not directly representing the policies or views of UNICEF as an organisation."

Comments on the Facebook event have described it as " a real low point for Exeter" and "giving someone like this a platform makes some people, including many of our students, feel unsafe and unwelcome".

It was this time last year when Katie famously "k-holed" in South Africa after having taken ketamine apparently for pain relief, although if we see you out on the mean streets Exeter later we won't tell if you don't.

Tickets have now sold out for the event so if you missed out don't worry you can follow @thetab.exeter on Instagram for live coverage of the debate later.