A CONTROVERSIAL blogger from Swindon has defended his right to self-defence after clashing with masked protestors at a university debate which descended into violence.

Carl Benjamin used his video channel to hit back after the event at King’s College London was disrupted when hard-left activists burst in and stormed the stage.

Benjamin, one of the speakers on free speech at the Libertarian Society event, later spoke in front of an Antifa flag taken from the group and rejected claims he was a “Nazi” or far-right proponent.

A security guard was said to have been punched in the face and a smoke bomb detonated after the self-proclaimed anti-fascists arrived in the lecture hall on Monday night.

The YouTuber, who uses the pseudonym Sargon of Akkad, has been accused of belonging to the alt-right, an American term describing far-right groups in the internet age, and has been described as anti-feminist. Student campaign groups, not including Antifa, a militant anti-fascist moment, had rallied opposition to the debate through a Facebook event page claiming that “Carl Benjamin’s racist, sexist and fascist views are not hidden facts”.

Benjamin posted footage showing punches being thrown as the intruders, wearing black masks and hoods, confronted speakers, organisers and audience members.

The married father-of-two, who describes himself as a ‘classic liberal’, gave his account of events in the YouTube video entitled ‘The Battle of King’s College London’.

Sitting in front of the flag, he said: “They decided that a Jewish objectivist, Yaron Brook, head of the Ayn Rand Institute, and myself, an English liberal, and not just a liberal but a liberalist, are Nazis. This is obviously ridiculous but on the plus side, in the battle of King’s College London, the liberalists won.”

Mobile phone footage in the video shows scuffles continuing outside the lecture hall as the activists are ejected from the university by security guards.

Benjamin said: “As you can see, Antifa burst into the event, they pushed me around, they pushed other people around and then we defended ourselves to victory by punching the crap out of one or two of them, and well deserved in my opinion. I actually did try reasoning with them at one stage - I didn’t throw any punches because none of them threw any punches at me, although if they had thrown punches at me, I would have defended myself vigorously as well.”

The video games developer responded to left wing groups who posted their own versions of events on social media, including one post accusing him of being an “alt-right mouthpiece”.

He responded: “I am in direct opposition to the alt-right. I have been debating against them, I have been harassed by them. They hate me. You are either stupid or you are liars, pick one.”

Benjamin has previously defended himself from accusations of sexism.

After Labour MP Jess Phillips said in May 2016 how she often received rape threats, he said on YouTube: “'I wouldn't even rape you.”

Challenged about his comment at a subsequent debate, he replied: “Your moral outrage at that is something I just don’t care about.”