Militant teachers call on parents to fight ‘Tory cuts’

‘They are a front for Labour’

THE biggest teaching union has vowed to mobilise parents against Tory education ‘cuts’ in the run-up to May 2’s local elections. The National Education Union (NEU) instructed its members to ‘encourage parental campaigning’ on the issue.

It will mean teachers around the country will be targeting families during ‘purdah’ – the period between an election being called and polling day, when schools cannot use public funds to give one party an advantage.

In his annual address, joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said families must be told about ‘ disgraceful’ levels of funding under the Conservatives and urged to ‘vote for education’. And in the event of a snap general election this year, members must ramp up their campaign even more, he said.

His call to arms was branded ‘depressing’ by critics, who accused him of trying to influence voters with ‘partisan statements’ before the elections.

It follows a similar campaign in the run-up to the 2017 general election, when many Tories were unseated and Theresa May lost her House of Commons majority.

At the time teachers were accused of trying to sway the result by sending letters home in children’s schoolbags which criticised Tory education policies. Research from pollster Survation suggested around 795,000 people may have switched their vote due to the issue of school funding. The NEU has more than 460,000 members. It was formed in 2017 by the merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

It has no official political affiliation but members have made no secret of their love of Jeremy Corbyn, chanting his name and giving him a standing ovation when he appeared at their conference.

Giving his call to action at the union’s annual conference in Liverpool yesterday, Mr Courtney urged teachers to keep education at the top of the political agenda.

‘School and college funding is an issue that will not go away for this Government – and I want to thank everyone who has helped build parental engagement this year,’ he said. ‘No politician can safely ignore the fact that three quarters of a million people changed their vote in the 2017 General Election because of school funding.

‘And so, we want you to encourage parental campaigning in the run-up to the local elections, and to ramp it up even more than that if there is a general election. We don’t tell people who to vote for, but we do say “vote for education”.’

He also declared: ‘The next election will be fought on education.’ The union says its campaign is purely about getting election candidates to take on board school funding issues, and does not seek to influence voters on polling day.

But it is likely to harm Tory candidates if families are told the party is depriving schools of funds.

Mark Lehain, of campaign group Parents and Teachers for Excellence, said: ‘The NEU makes a big thing about being non-affiliated and independent of all parties. It’s depressing to hear them make such partisan statements during election periods. School funding is an incredibly important issue, but they should consider whether obviously party-political activity is right during an election.’

Conservative Party vice chairman Paul Scully said: ‘This shows that the NEU has sadly become little more than a front for the Labour Party. Their spending in the last general election was investigated by the Electoral Commission while their Schools Cuts website has been condemned by the UK Statistics Authority.

‘They should be focused on helping great teachers to educate our children not using school staff to campaign for Jeremy Corbyn.’