A row has erupted between Nigel Farage and Britain’s biggest teaching union after it branded Reform UK a “racist and far-right” party.
National Education Union (NEU) members at their annual conference called for funds to be used to help campaign against Reform UK candidates.
The NEU’s general secretary, Daniel Kebede, claimed there were “an awful lot of racists who are getting involved in Reform”.
Farage reacted angrily to Mr Kebede’s claims, accusing him of encouraging “indoctrination of teenagers in our schools” and vowing that his party would “go to war” with the teaching unions if it won the next general election.
The Reform UK leader campaigns for tougher action against illegal immigration and a “one in, one out” policy for legal migrants to ease pressure on housing and the NHS.
He has always insisted he is not a racist and has rejected calls from some Reform UK members to side with far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
The party has also stepped up vetting of candidates ahead of May’s local elections in England after a series of racism scandals during last year’s general election campaign.
A motion passed at the NEU’s conference in Harrogate described Reform UK as a “racist and far-right party because of its policies around immigration and its campaigns against migrants”.
It accused the party of “scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.
Members agreed that the union should “use the union’s political fund to support campaigning against election candidates from Reform UK (whose anti-immigration policies and campaigns are racist in nature) or other racist organisations”.
Speaking with journalists afterwards, Mr Kebede said Farage was a “pound-shop Donald Trump” who had “made a career out of dog-whistle politics”, but did not label him or his party “racist”.
Asked whether he therefore disagreed with the motion, he said: “I think there [are] an awful lot of racists who are getting involved in Reform.”
Pressed on whether that included Farage, he said: “I think Nigel Farage is a right-wing populist.”
Responding to the comments at a press conference in County Durham, Farage said Mr Kebede was a “self-declared Marxist” who was encouraging “indoctrination of teenagers in our schools”.
He said the union leader was “somebody who is absolutely determined that our children should be poisoned at school, their minds should be poisoned about everything to do with this country, its history, what it stood for”.
He added: “I’ll make one thing very, very clear: if we win the 2029 general election, we will go to war with the National Education Union and all left-wing teachers’ unions.
“People should be taught objectively, fairly and should be taught critical thinking where kids can make their own minds up what they believe and not be indoctrinated.”
Reform MP Lee Anderson said the NEU had “shown its true colours”, adding: “Rather than focusing on educating Britain’s youth, it seems more interested in political indoctrination, silencing free speech, and spreading divisive rhetoric.”
