BNP members should be barred from classroom, say delegates

BNP members are banned from working as prison officers and the same should be the case for teaching, delegates at the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference in Liverpool heard yesterday. The union was debating a resolution which claims the BNP, and other similar organisations, pose a threat to community relations.

It called on the union to "reaffirm its belief" that being a member of an organisation like the BNP "is incompatible with the role of a teacher, or other member of a school staff in a democratic and multi-racial society".

An amendment to the motion called for the union to lobby the Government to enact legislation to ban members of parties like the BNP from working in teaching.

Speaking in favour of the amendment, Jason Hill, an NUT member from Stoke-on-Trent said: "In prisons, prison officers are not allowed to be members of the BNP, in schools there is no bar on teachers being members of the BNP, there is no bar on school governors, there is no bar on councillors involved in education.

"What we are arguing for in this amendment is that we in the education service be brought into the same position as the prison service and that members of the BNP, that we argue to Government, should be barred from this position."

Jean Roberts, a delegate from Hammersmith and Fulham said she was against the views of the BNP, and insisted any teacher who promotes racist views in the classroom should be barred from the profession.

However she added: "I don't believe the NUT should call on the state to bar teachers from joining a presently legal political party.

"They would rapidly move on to others who are more of a threat to them. To remove such a basic civil right, the right of association, something trade unionists find especially precious, is in my view a grossly disproportionate response, but more importantly it gives the BNP a credibility it does not deserve."

The NUT did not pass the resolution or the amendment after running out of time for the debate.