Farage: ‘teachers poison our kids with Marxism'

Nigel Farage has predicted teachers would go on strike within weeks of a Reform UK government, and accused them of "poisoning our kids" by telling them that black children are victims and white children are oppressors.

- Rowena Mason Whitehall editor

The Reform UK leader set out his view on British schools in an event for a private US Christian college in Michigan, claiming that the “Marxist left” was “now in control of our education system”.

“I’m anticipating a teachers' strike very quickly after winning the next general election," he said during a question-andanswer session at the event last month. "They are poisoning our kids.

They are telling them to be ashamed of their country. They are telling little Johnny, who's eight, who is black, that he is a victim and little Oliver, who is white, who is eight, that he is an oppressor. They are dividing us not uniting us. They are feeding this negative culture in." In response to Farage's claims about strikes and teaching about race, Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said the idea that the education system was controlled by Marxists was "nonsense". He pointed out that any strikes had to be on the grounds of terms and conditions for teachers, questioning whether Reform would attack these straight away on entering government.