Labour Might Not Survive Under Keir Starmer, Warns Veteran Union Boss
Matt Wrack's appointment to lead NASUWT was unexpected (Jess Hurd)
6 min read
The head of a teaching union who has spent more than two decades at the forefront of the trade union movement has said Keir Starmer’s leadership poses an existential threat to the Labour Party.
Matt Wrack, who recently won the legally contested fight to become general secretary of teaching union NASUWT, claimed it had become "that bad" for Labour as polling continues to show the Prime Minister to be deeply unpopular with voters.
Wrack’s own relationship with Labour has been tumultuous. Initially joining the party in the 1970s, he was expelled just over a decade later and joined the Socialist Worker Party for a time, before rejoining Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2016.
Having previously served as head of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) for two decades, Wrack oversaw industrial relations with eight prime ministers before being replaced by Steve Wright as FBU general secretary at the beginning of this year.
“There’s no getting away from the fact that my last two years in the FBU were very difficult and, frankly, unpleasant," he told PoliticsHome.
Wrack even considered a job in Sainsbury's, where he could “push trolleys around and not have to think about things”, but was persuaded to return to the trade union movement by friends and family.
The appointment of left-wing Wrack to lead politically neutral NASUWT came as a surprise to Westminster, where even ministers reportedly raised eyebrows.
In his first wide-ranging interview since starting his new role in July, Wrack became the latest union leader to criticise the performance of the Labour government in scathing terms.
“I don't shy away from saying I’m pretty critical of the current leadership and direction of travel. I’m on the left, I’m a socialist.
"Keir Starmer's leadership has raised questions about whether the Labour Party even survives in its current form; it’s that bad.”
Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Britain's largest union, Unison, told the upcoming edition of The House Magazine that Labour's rightward shift on immigration was a "huge mistake". The challenger for her role, Andrea Egan, told the same publication that Rachel Reeves' performance as Chancellor had been "appalling".
Wrack said Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which he describes as “populist and far-right", has managed to capitalise on the mainstream left’s inability to win over the public.
New research by Thinks Insight & Strategy, shared with PoliticsHome this weekend, found that 23 per cent of Labour's 2024 vote is currently considering voting for Farage's party at the next general election.
Wrack accepts that many trade union members will also be Reform supporters, telling PoliticsHome that unions must develop "friendly" dialogue with these people so that they can be in a strong position to say: "This will not deliver for you."
“These people [Reform] will worsen the position of public services, will sell off bits of our public services, will attack workers' rights," he said.
Wrack believes a Reform-led government would pose a "real and potentially existential threat to the trade union movement as it currently is”.
Both the Labour Party and Reform UK have been contacted for comment.
Speaking to PoliticsHome ahead of the Budget on Wednesday, Wrack said that the prospect of NASUWT members going on strike is "inevitably in the air" as the mood music coming out of government points to a "tightening of purse strings".
Responding, a Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson told PoliticsHome that under its latest proposals, "teacher pay would rise by almost 17 per cent across this parliament, equating to a significant real terms increase over the five years".
However, there will be questions over how feasible such an action is for NASUWT.
Wrack has been criticised for his lack of teaching experience (Alamy)
The union suffered a loss of members after it failed to pass the legal threshold to join the larger National Education Union in its nationwide strikes in 2023. The loss of income, coupled with the contested leadership election that culminated in the union footing a £78,000 bill, has cast doubt over the union's financial stability.
“You can see very clearly that the union has had a decline in membership," Wrack said.
“We need to address that, and we need to make sure we are relevant to teachers, that we've got a clear campaigning message, that we've got an agenda to improve the position of teachers, to fight for decent conditions in schools.”
If NASUWT is to have any hope of garnering enough member support in the future for nationwide industrial action, Wrack said, “we need to reflect on that and make sure we don't get caught out with any of the obvious risks about thresholds and errors”.
“I'm almost obsessive about not losing ballots,” Wrack later commented.
Seen by some as an odd choice for NASUWT, given his relative lack of teaching experience, Wrack is keen to demonstrate that he understands the issues facing schools.
He is critical of the DfE decision to delay the publication of major reforms to the special educational needs and disabilities system (SEND), first reported by PoliticsHome in September, saying it has “exacerbated the fear factor” for affected parents.
A DfE spokesperson said in response: "It is critical we get this right".
The union leader also wants to focus on "deep misogyny" emerging in classrooms, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in how children are educated.
Wrack has also pledged to tackle antisemitism experienced by school staff. A survey conducted by NASUWT earlier this year found that more than half of Jewish teachers had experienced antisemitism in the workplace in the past year.
Corbyn's Labour was put in special measures by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) over unlawful antisemitism within the party, and Wrack has sought to allay concerns within the sector that his previous support for the former Labour leader means he is not well placed to tackle antisemitism in schools.
“I've always taken the issue of antisemitism very seriously as any other form of racism," he told The Jewish Chronicle last month.
The JC article described 'left-wing antisemitism', a term which Wrack appears to push back on in his interview with PoliticsHome.
"Racism has no place on the left, and there may be some individuals who come up with a clumsy phrase, and we should probably point some of that out. When people are getting into conspiracy theory stuff, I would question the degree to [which] that is remotely left-wing, in my view."
He said that "it doesn't take very long" for discussions about Gaza on social media to lead to "some very weird and horrible antisemitic comments from people who presumably think they're supporting Palestinians, and that is pretty shocking”.
On Corbyn, Wrack believes the chaos that has overshadowed Your Party since its launch earlier this year "is not a good advert for the left".
“I have lots of criticisms of Jeremy Corbyn, even though I supported his leadership. I have different politics. I was critical of decisions that he took...
“I don't think people have learned the lessons adequately of the Corbyn years, and my fear is people are going to repeat some of the mistakes again.”
