“This is what Nigel Farage is: he’s a poundshop Donald Trump.”
The National Education Union will use its political fund to campaign against Reform UK candidates, after passing a motion at its annual conference this week.
The union described Reform UK as “far-right and racist”, while NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede called its leader, Nigel Farage, a “pound shop Donald Trump”.
Delegates at the conference backed a motion stating that “far-right and racist organisations, including Reform, seek to build on the despair, poverty and alienation in our society by scapegoating refugees, asylum seekers, Muslims, Jews and others who do not fit their beliefs”.
Kebede said: “I think there’s an awful lot of racists who are getting involved in Reform. I think Nigel Farage is a right-wing populist.”
Speaking at a campaign event in Durham, Farage called Kebede “a self-declared Marxist … someone who is absolutely determined that our children should be poisoned at school, their minds should be poisoned about everything to do with this country”.
The Reform UK leader added that the party would “go to war with the National Education Union and the other left-wing teaching unions” if they win the next election.
In response, Kebede said: “I’m surprised that our union seems to be living rent free in his head, to be honest.
“But this is just lifted directly from the Donald Trump playbook. Both Elon Musk and Donald Trump have been directly attacking the AFT and the NEA, the American teachers’ unions. And this is what Nigel Farage is: He’s a pound shop Donald Trump.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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