STUDENTS will confront the Tories this winter with a nationwide strike in protest at the axing of maintenance grants, National Union of Students (NUS) representatives announced yesterday.

The NUS national executive pledged its support for the initiative, which has not been seen in Britain since 1971.

Maintenance grants have allowed thousands of lower-income people to go to university but were scrapped this summer by Chancellor George Osborne, who deemed them “unaffordable.”