Great Yarmouth's Reform MP attacks schools accusing them of 'indoctrination'
Mr Lowe said he had not been able to verify the claims and declined to name the schools
A new Norfolk MP has launched an attack on schools in his constituency, accusing staff of vilifying his party and telling pupils to encourage parents to vote Labour.
Rupert Lowe, the Reform MP for Great Yarmouth, claimed to have received ‘a number’ of reports from concerned parents about indoctrination at five schools in the town.
He said he had been told of incidents where teachers disparaged Reform, accusing pupils of racism for supporting its policies, and pushed “their own aggressive personal views”.
He claims one incident occurred during a visit to a school by the town’s Labour candidate, Keir Cozens, as part of the election campaign.
Mr Lowe said he had not been able to verify the claims and declined to name the schools.
But in a series of tweets, he said: “I will be following up with each and every headteacher, making it abundantly clear that their responsibility to the children does NOT include forcing political opinions on impressionable young boys and girls.”
However, Mr Lowe’s actions have been criticised by Mike Smith-Clare, deputy leader of Norfolk County Council’s (NCC) Labour group, who called them an “unsubstantiated public witch hunt” from a “political newbie”.
The claims
Mr Lowe made the allegations on X/Twitter on Monday, stating he had gathered a list of schools where “teachers were allegedly pushing their own aggressive personal views about Reform on young children.”
He added: “It doesn’t matter if it’s about Reform, Green, Tory or whoever else. It is not acceptable.”
He repeated the claims via three separate posts on the social media platform.
When asked for further details about the allegations, he said he did not want to name the schools publically until he had spoken with them, but said the claims related to five in Yarmouth, both primaries and secondaries.
But he did say he had a number of parents get in touch with him following a visit from Keir Cozens to a primary school in the constituency, claiming children were urged to get their parents to vote Labour.
He also said he had had further reports of similar incidents at a school in Lowestoft and 30 others from across the country.
“Teachers should stick to teaching the curriculum"
One parent who contacted Mr Lowe said his Year 7 son was told by a teacher that he and his friends were “being racist” during a class exercise after proposing a hypothetical policy on immigration similar to those suggested by Reform.
The father, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “My child was told to come up with a political party and some policies.
“They suggested a policy to turn boats back around and for people who turned up in the boats to be taken back to the country they came from.
“When the teacher gave them feedback, they said this was divisive and not very welcoming and that they thought they were being racist. I was suitably unimpressed.”
The parent said during a discussion about the upcoming election in another class, his son was told by a teacher he “did not want to hear that name” in his classroom after his child brought up Reform.
“Teachers should stick to teaching the curriculum, not imposing their views on children” he added.
School rules
The teaching of democracy is an important aspect of education, however staff must remain politically impartial.
Schools have a legal duty to “prohibit the promotion of partisan political views”, as stated in the Education Act 1996.
Schools must also ensure steps are taken to offer a balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues.
"Public witch hunt"
Mike Smith-Clare, deputy leader of the NCC Labour group, criticised the way Mr Lowe made the accusations: “To threaten local headteachers in a confrontational Big Brother manner is quite frankly shocking.
“Education managers will make better use of their time running their institutions rather than being held to account by the naive personal grievances of a political newbie.
“The fact that this appears to be no more than an unsubstantiated public witch hunt could be viewed as a possible violation of professional and confidentiality codes.
“I’m certain teachers and their unions would have anticipated bridge-building support from their MP in his first few days of tenure – not the threat of interrogation.”
Strong opinions
Throughout the campaign period and after his election as Great Yarmouth MP, Mr Lowe – a businessman living in the Cotswolds who was formerly the chairman of Southampton Football Club – has frequently used social media to voice his outspoken views.
It led his Tory rival, James Clark, to block him from interacting with him on Facebook due to him being bombarded with comments under his posts.
This week, he shared a letter to the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner, claiming women have been “harassed and attacked by gangs of men and said some areas in Yarmouth have become “almost ‘no-go’ areas for local people” but did not provide evidence of this.