A group of Jewish teachers are urging the NASUWT – Britain’s second-largest teaching union – to reconsider the appointment of a Corbyn-supporting firefighter as their general secretary.
Matt Wrack, who led the Fire Brigades Union for 20 years before losing a re-election earlier this year, was appointed to head the union earlier this week.
However, some Jewish teachers have written an open letter to the NASUWT’s executive committee to express their “dismay” over Wrack’s appointment.
In it, they say: “Antisemitism in the UK has been at record levels over the past 18 months. As teachers, many of us have experienced this first hand at our place of work, seeing Jewish children experience antisemitism as well as experiencing it ourselves as staff.
“It is imperative that we have confidence in our union to defend our rights under these circumstances. This is now under threat given the new general secretary’s history of denying and downplaying antisemitism,” they added.
In a union conference in 2016, Wrack referred to the “so-called antisemitism in the Labour Party” which he said was “about an attack on the left, and it is about an attempt to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.”
In 2018, he attacked the decision by pro-Corbyn faction Momentum to withdraw support for Pete Willsman after he was recorded saying that Jewish “Trump fanatics” were making false claims of antisemitism in the party and denied the problem was widespread.
“Mr Wrack used his position at a previous union to publicly undermine the widespread issue of antisemitism within the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn. At a time when the Jewish community feared the spread of anti-Jewish hatred in a major political party, he chose to refer to it as the ‘so-called furore about so-called antisemitism’ and a ‘witch-hunt’. Members cannot have confidence in a union led by someone who actively denies the existence of obvious antisemitism,” the Jewish teachers told the NASUWT executive.
The letter goes on to express concern at the apparent political shift in the union – previously regarded as more politically moderate than the National Education Union (NEU) – whose leadership have previously been accused of adopting extreme anti-Israel language.
The NEU’s general secretary Daniel Kebede came under fire for saying “globalise the intifada” at a pro-Palestine rally in 2021 – seen by many as a call for violence – but he insisted it was an expression “of support for civic protests; it did not convey any support for violence.”
The letter went on: “Many of us joined NASUWT after leaving other teaching unions which we felt no longer supported us. These unions embraced educationally unrelated political gesturing at the expense of giving proper representation to members. In appointing Matt Wrack, we fear NASUWT has joined this approach leaving Jewish teachers once again without satisfactory representation.”
One English teacher who signed the letter, who spoke to the JC anonymously, was fearful of not having a union that fully understands the eruption in antisemitism since October 7.
“For the first time in my 9-year career I have faced antisemitic remarks and comments towards me from the students I teach. I need to have a union I can turn to when things like this happen to support me,” she said, adding: “A union should be a representative voice for all their members, and I fear that this will no longer be the case with NASUWT with Matt Wrack at the helm.
“My main worry is that NASUWT will not be a safe space for Jewish teachers to raise their concerns,” she went on.
Wrack’s appointment faces a legal challenge alleging that the union breached its own rules by refusing to allow local associations to nominate candidates who were not union members.
Wrack – who was also not a member of the union – was nominated by the union’s executive, rather than elected by a ballot of members.
More Members of Parliament have also joined criticism of Wrack’s appointment, which Conservative MP for West Suffolk Nick Timothy said was “very worrying” and said there were “serious questions about the process and its legitimacy.”
He added: “Teachers and children deserve better than another hard-left militant running a teaching union, and Jewish teachers deserve better than somebody who has dismissed clear evidence of antisemitism in the Labour Party as the stuff of conspiracy theories.”
Reform UK’s Deputy leader Richard Tice MP also questioned why, given he has no teaching qualifications, Wrack was chosen to head the NASUWT.
“Why has a major teaching union appointed a hard left firefighter to lead it? Is this another example of militants dominating the world of academia?”, he told the JC.
Earlier this month, as well as backing a motion that called for an arms embargo on Israel, the NEU’s conference labelled Nigel Farage’s political party a “far right and racist party” and pledged to fund candidates opposed to Reform UK.
At the time, Reform dismissed the criticism and Ashfield MP Lee Anderson hit back at the union, saying: "Rather than focusing on educating Britain's youth, it seems more interested in political indoctrination, silencing free speech, and spreading divisive rhetoric."
Yesterday, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) and Labour MPs Gurinder Singh Josan and Neil Coyle also voiced concern about Wrack’s appointment, with JLM saying that: "Matt Wrack embodies the worst of Labour under Corbyn – unrepentant hostility to Israel, making light of the scale of antisemitism in the party and defending the likes of Peter Willsman.”
NASUWT have been contacted for comment.
