Oxford University Student Union announced it was leaving the NUS on 21 May after students voted by a majority of just 128 votes to ditch the national body.

However, it has emerged that about 1,000 votes cast in favour of the ¡°No¡± to reaffiliation ¨C which received 1,780 votes in total ¨C may have been faked.

According to evidence submitted by Jack Matthews, who led the No campaign, the 1,000 spare unique voter codes were used ¡°in large clusters¡­at a similar time¡± and that the votes all came from log-ons at the same IP address.

His complaint also claims that a ¡°significantly larger number¡± of unique voter codes than normal were issued, with about 23,000 codes issued for an electorate of around 21,500, of whom 15 per cent voted.

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Mr Matthews, president of the Oxford University Conservative Association, had led the campaign for Oxford to leave the NUS, saying it needed to change. He previously accused it of left-wing bias.

An OUSU committee has now overturned the result of last week¡¯s NUS referendum, which means?the union is likely to remain affiliated to the national union.

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Returning officer Alexander Walker, a student at Wadham College, has resigned, saying his position was ¡°no longer tenable¡± as ¡°the grave situation with the NUS Referendum happened under my watch¡±.

OUSU¡¯s operations and events manager, Tom Rutland, acting returning officer, will now bring a motion to the union¡¯s council to re-affiliate, suggesting there will not be a further poll.

¡°I will be bringing a motion to 7th Week OUSU Council to reaffiliate to National Union of Students, given that without 1000+ false ballots for ¡®NO¡¯, the result would have been 70-30 YES ¨C a margin of more than 2:1,¡± he said.

A university spokesman said: ¡°The proctors are aware of the complaint made to OUSU and are monitoring developments.¡±

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jack.grove@tsleducation.com