Union Leader Backs Andy Burnham as Labour's Best Hope Against Reform

The leader of one of the country’s biggest teaching unions has said Andy Burnham is Labour’s best chance for beating Reform in a general election.

The general secretary of NASUWT, Matt Wrack, was speaking to the Guardian in the run-up to Thursday’s Makerfield byelection, in which the Greater Manchester mayor hopes to return to parliament and pave the way for a possible leadership challenge.

Wrack warned of the dangers of a Reform government to teachers and education, and said his members were already encountering hostility from Reform-led local authorities.

Reform councillors had refused to talk to them, accusing them of indoctrinating children and describing them as a disgrace and “part of the problem”. NASUWT trade union activists were “quite taken aback by the hostility”, he said.

“I think a Reform government would be devastating for teachers, devastating for education and devastating for trade unions, and very scary,” he said. “I’m not sure any of us have really come to terms with how far politics has shifted and what those risks actually mean.

“I think the sort of hesitation we have had of this Labour government, you wouldn’t see with Reform. If Reform had their chance they would move very quickly and very ruthlessly to attack trade union rights, attack equality provision and legislation.”

Wrack, who took over at NASUWT a year ago after 20 years as the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, said he had previously had dealings with Burnham.

“I suppose he’s Labour’s probable best chance of beating Reform in Makerfield. He would then be well placed to win a Labour leadership challenge, and I think he would be Labour’s best chance of beating Reform in a [general] election.”

After 14 years of Tory austerity, Wrack said the public needed to see greater change than the current Labour government had managed. Burnham as leader could not just carry on in the same vein, he said. “The situation cries out for some more robust change.”

By way of example, he said NASUWT members were shocked when a recent government white paper included the expectation that all schools should move towards joining academy trusts, which was the last government’s policy.

“People expected something different from the Labour government, and what we’ve got is a continuation of Tory policy on academisation.” He said he hoped Burnham would reverse that decision if he became prime minister.

He also expressed concerns about the government’s planned overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) provision.

“I think there’s a big risk for teachers in the Send proposals. My fear on this is that teachers’ voices haven’t particularly been listened to, and the risk that a whole new range of expectations are placed on schools and on teachers, which can then be inspected against … but without anything like adequate funding and resources.

“I think there’s a lot in there that we probably would support. But I think we would say the government, whoever it is, but if it’s a Burnham-led government, needs to sit down with people on the frontline of teaching and listen to their experience and build that experience into whatever final plans are developed.”

Wrack also spoke about possible industrial action in schools over pay and a “vicious cycle of underfunding”, and expressed concern about the lack of public debate about additional funding for defence while education suffered.

Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “I find it galling that there’s no debate on the issue, that it is simply presented as a debate that has already finished, even though it never took place.”

A Labour source said Wrack’s comments “don’t reflect the reality of what this government has delivered – in line with Labour values.

“We’ve taken major steps to reform academies with the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act so they deliver minimum standards in every school – now we’re going further to make schools collaborate, giving local authorities the power to create new trusts and demanding greater accountability from trusts.”

The source added: “We’re listening to teachers as we embark on our landmark reforms of the Send system – we know the impossible pressure they’ve felt under the current, broken, Send system, which is precisely why this Labour government is fixing it.”