How a hard-Left stitch-up threw one of Britain's biggest teaching unions into turmoil

Telegraph

15-05-2025

It's clear what might attract Matt Wrack, the recently deposed long-time leader of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), to the top job at one of the country's biggest teaching unions. An annual salary of around £134,000 is certainly not to be sniffed at.
What is less obvious is why the normally moderate National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) would want a loyal Jeremy Corbyn-ally and Left-wing firebrand with zero educational experience to lead it.
Nonetheless, last month, Wrack, who once said he was 'proud to have led the longest period of strike action' in the FBU's history, was announced as general secretary of the NASUWT without facing any opposition.
'It's completely crazy,' one union source tells The Telegraph. 'I have been active in the trade union movement all my life and I was staggered when I heard. I initially thought it was a joke.'
It may not have been a joke, but someone is certainly having the last laugh. Since Wrack's unveiling, the union, which represents almost 300,000 teachers nationwide, has been forced into an embarrassing climbdown over the appointment and re-opened nominations, with a ballot expected to begin in June.
Wrack was the general secretary of the FBU from May 2005 until January 2025, when he lost out in a tight vote against the union's vice president Steve Wright. As a former fireman, he was well-placed to lead the FBU – which, under his 20-year leadership, became one of Britain's more political unions. Between 2013 and 2015 the FBU held the longest period of strike action in its history.
But Wrack has never worked in education, and was not a member of the NASUWT, so just how did he end up being named as its leader?
For Susan Parlour, 57, a former lay member of the union's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), the situation is no surprise.
'I think, in the way they have operated in terms of this election, this has been typical of the NASUWT,' she says.
'They don't want to be challenged. They want to keep dissenters out and keep tight control from the top. People who challenge are quickly pushed out from senior lay positions.'
In August 2018, Parlour began asking for an election timetable to be published as Chris Keates, who was general secretary at the time, was coming to the end of her tenure.
'I was told by national officers not to worry about it', she says, but a timetable never appeared.
'Once I started asking questions I became the target of the NASUWT leadership. In October 2018, I had trumped up charges sent to me by NASUWT.'
She took a complaint about Keates to a Certification Office (CO) tribunal, which rejected her call for an enforcement order to remove Keates from office. Whilst the union had conceded that there had been a breach in trade union law as Keates had remained in post beyond five years without an election, it argued that Keates was now only 'acting general secretary' pending an election. The Certification Officer found that the union had made 'an honest and genuine mistake' in allowing her to overstay in her post.
Parlour told the tribunal that Keates had simply 'rebranded herself'. Keates eventually made way for Dr Patrick Roach in 2020, who became general secretary without having to face a vote.
But the ramifications continued for Parlour, who claims the NEC meetings 'became horrendous'.
'National officers would take it in turns to denounce the person who had taken a claim against them to the CO,' she says.
'Although they did not name me, everyone in the room knew who had taken the claim. I would have to just sit there and take it. It was hugely intimidating.'
She was later expelled in January 2020.
Another former NASUWT official, who did not want to be named, says: 'From my experience, anyone that speaks out against the NASUWT leadership, they go after him. They throw everything at him.
'If you go against the NEC decision or publicly challenge it you will be suspended pending an investigation.
'I think it is a complete and utter mess. I think the whole process should be rerun. In a sense there has not been an election for 30 years and no one knows the rules.'
And he adds: 'One of the issues for me is if [Wrack] has been appointed, what happens with his five-year contract, if he loses any election?
'What does Matt Wrack do? Does he challenge the union and ask for compensation for his five-year contract?'
'The last time Matt Wrack was in a school was over 40 years ago'
One long-term minister who served under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown thinks there is a 'mixture of conspiracy and incompetence at play'.
'It was sprung on them – there was a personal tragedy for the outgoing general secretary who left suddenly – and they hadn't done proper succession planning.'
'Clearly someone there had a political agenda,' adds the former minister. 'Matt had lost his election [at the FBU]. It was a very contentious election and he was from the ultra-Left, with a strong affiliation with Labour, and someone wanted him in the role.'
Unlike most unions, which tend to operate in an arguably more democratic way, the NASUWT executive committee makes a nomination and in order for someone else to run against them, they are required to get 25 local branches to support them. One former teacher – Neil Butler, who is also head of the Welsh arm of the union – was able to get the requisite number, but was barred from running at the last minute due to a technicality… that he was not eligible to stand for the position as he was an employee and a non-member.
And because this was the first time someone with no history of working in education had been appointed to the job, members were immediately confused and upset. One political advisor says 'There was chaos behind the scenes when the announcement was made' while a teacher who doesn't want to be named describes it as 'a bonkers decision', adding, 'given his age, it is entirely plausible that the last time Matt Wrack was in a school was over 40 years ago'.
According to a Westminster source, the members might have accepted Wrack if other challengers had been allowed to stand. 'It was perceived as a stitch-up because the executive had a preferred candidate and that was that.'
But his lack of education experience wasn't the only problem.
Political games
'In the last few years, he has been followed by controversy and scandal,' claims the union source. Wrack has been under particular scrutiny over the FBU's use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
The source adds: 'These have included NDAs given to members of staff after allegations of bullying and racism'.
Wrack's politics too, stand in opposition to the NASUWT. '​​He seems so ill-suited to that union and [the teaching] industry,' says the source. 'He is an old Trotskyist and he hasn't really shifted his politics since he got expelled from the Labour Party in 1990. He has always been a Trot. He loathed the professional trade union class – that was never what it was about for him. He believed it should be about remembering your roots and now he has become the thing he spent years opposing.'
Ed Dorrell, a director at research consultancy Public First, explains that most members aren't aware of quite how distinct union politics are. '[It is] driven by the niche interests and values of the hard Left,' he says. 'Unfortunately there is a very good chance that the Wrack appointment was also part of these political games and alliances.'
Wrack is also a big name in the union world. 'He is a good performer and he speaks well – I think they were probably impressed by him at interview,' says the source. 'But I imagine a lot of them don't know his real politics and his Trotskyist background; instead they were probably thinking they'd get a big figure who could go on the Today programme... and exert a lot of influence.'
A number of insiders have also suggested that this entire kerfuffle might be linked to the National Education Union or NEU – the separate and largest union for teachers that has taken a far more radical approach to strikes and political demands. The leader of the NEU, Daniel Kebede, is a close friend and ally of Wrack's.
'Patrick Roach had to become more hardcore in response to the NEU being so militant,' says a political source. 'So I wonder if they felt they needed a more hardcore union leader. The NEU has stated that they want to steal members as they want to see all the teaching unions unite – perhaps this was a misguided move by people at a senior level to play them at their own game.' Other insiders suggest that – despite Wrack's claims to the contrary – his ultimate aim was to merge the two unions.
Equally, if the executive wanted to move the union to the Left, then they picked the right man. 'He is a militant at heart,' says the source. 'He is very close to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.'
The problem is that the vast majority of teachers – all of whom are told to join a union when they leave teacher training college – aren't particularly interested in hard-Left disputes, which, as one educational expert explains, are often more focused on issues like Palestine, or differences between the Communist or Socialist Workers parties, than they are on the nitty-gritty details that teachers care about, like Ofsted reform.
According to the former Labour minister, this plays right into the hands of the industry bosses these people claim to stand in opposition to. 'Employers in the private sector like unions that pass resolutions on Palestine because it means they aren't focusing on issues like pay or the right to fair play.'
Hence many people in the world of education feeling relieved at the development. 'This is good news for British families,' says one source, 'as his focus would have been on industrial action and teacher strikes, which is bad for kids'.
In the face of an embarrassing legal challenge by Butler and fellow teacher Luke Lockyer, the union's executives announced last week that nominations on behalf of members and non-members alike would reopen. In a brief hearing, the high court heard that the union and the applicants had reached an agreement, with the union paying the applicants' costs of around £78,000.
Speaking after the hearing, Butler said: 'It is a shame that this matter was not resolved before legal proceedings were issued. So much time, and valuable union funds, have been wasted because of a failure to follow what was clearly stated in the union's rules.'
The NASUWT has announced that 'it is important that there be stability and that the general secretary be appointed free from any suggestion that they have been elected otherwise than in accordance with due process'.
When approached by The Telegraph, the NASUWT declined to comment. What's more, Wrack clearly intends on staying, telling The Guardian that there had been a 'ludicrous' and 'coordinated' attempt by his political enemies to bring him down.
'It's about trying to do a hatchet job on me because they don't want effective trade unionism,' he said.
As to what happens next – nobody is quite sure. If any other candidate gets the required nominations, a ballot of members will begin on June 19 and close on July 23. Until then, Wrack is the interim general secretary... something one Westminster insider describes as 'worrying – as he wouldn't agree to it if he didn't think he would end up with the job'.
But others are more optimistic. The union source says: 'I would be surprised if Matt wins: if the other guy gets a nomination, all he has to do to win the postal ballot is say he's been a teacher and he knows the union.'
For teachers – and for parents and children – the result of this contest matters. '[I hope] that whoever takes over permanently at the NASUWT is pragmatic politically and can lead teachers in a way that is informed by a deep understanding of the teaching profession,' says Dorrell. 'That might now be possible.'