One of Britain’s largest teaching unions is facing a legal challenge to the uncontested election of left-wing firebrand Matt Wrack as its new general secretary, Jewish News has learned.
It is understood that legal firm Mishcon de Reya and Old Square Chambers are behind an application for an injunction to rescind the outcome of the non-contested leadership election at the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).
It is claimed that the union has acted in breach of its own rules by refusing to allow another candidate to stand for election against Wrack, a veteran left-winger, and a staunch ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Lawyers has notified union chiefs last Sunday of their objection to Wrack’s appointment, and urged them to reopen nominations – but the NASUWT went ahead and announced the result on Tuesday.
High Court
Wrack was former chief of the FBU firefighters union for 20 years until his unexpected ousting in an election in January.
He becomes the first leader in NASUWT history to have never been a qualified teacher or lecturer. Jewish members of moderate teaching union alarmed as far-left figure named leader
Wrack was backed for the role by the union’s national executive committee.
It is understood that the legal challenge revolves around the fact that the candidate who wished to challenge Wrack was barred on the grounds that he was not a member and could not therefore be nominated by local union branches. Meanwhile the union’s NEC were able to themselves nominate Wrack, even though he was himself a non-member.
Branches attempting to nominate another candidate, Neil Butler, who is the NASUWT’s national officer for Wales, were told that rules barred him from receiving nominations because he was not a member of the union.
Butler’s allies dispute claims the union has such rule. He has worked for the NASUWT for 20 years was a teacher and member in the past.
The application for the injunction was in his name.
Jewish teachers within the union, who number well over one thousand, are also understood to be supportive of the legal challenge.
Wrack’s appointment means that alongside the National Education Union (NEU), where Daniel Kebede is general secretary, both of the country’s two teaching unions are now under far-left leadership. Kebede, a member of the far-left SWP, was among the first to congratulate Wrack on his new role as NASUWT leader.
“Jewish teachers who are members of the NASUWT will be rightly concerned by a general secretary who played a leading role in downplaying antisemitism in the Labour Party, ” Russell Langer, director of communications at the Jewish Leadership Council, told Jewish News after his appointment was confirmed.
“At a time where Jewish teachers are dealing with a frightening rise in antisemitism in the workplace they deserve a union leader who will prioritise their welfare.”
Russell Langer and Daniel Sugarman address parliamentary committee (pic Parliament TV)
The Labour MP Luke Akehurst also added: “It is disappointing that the executive of NASUWT has gifted a political resurrection to Matt Wrack with an uncontested election of a union leader representing a profession he has never been a member of just months after he lost a democratic election in the FBU.
“I know many, many Jewish teachers who had first quit the NUT then the NEU and moved to the NASUWT because of the politics of the former two unions.”
The Partnership for Jewish Schools said Wrack’s nomination was “deeply troubling”, adding: “The many Jewish members of the NASUWT are likely to find this appointment particularly challenging. Educational unions must represent the interests of all members without prejudice or bias.”
Akehurst said he feared the union could pursue anti-Zionist policies under Wrack’s control.
Under his leadership the FBU voted to re-affiliate to the Labour party after Corbyn’s election as leader in 2015.
Wrack once spoke of “the so-called furore about so-called antisemitism”, framing the crisis over anti-Jewish racism in Labour as an attempt to undermine Corbyn as leader.
Wrack’s speech to the 2024 TUC Congress noted the October 7 Hamas terror attack, but continued: “We meet almost a year in from the attacks of 7 October and the launch of the Israeli war on Gaza, now expanded into the West Bank. We send solidarity to the Palestinian people in the face of this horrifying onslaught.”
Addressing the May Day trade union march last year, Wrack said: “We need to act against the war in Gaza, disrupt arms deliveries, and force the government to end their complicity with the massacre of the Palestinian people.”
A 2020 social media post by Wrack saw him single out the Jewish anti-Zionist comedian Alexi Sayle for praise. Posting a pro-Corbyn video from Sayle, Wrack wrote: ” Alexei Sayle on being Jewish, a comedian and anti- establishment… … and #Corbyn.”
One Jewish member of NASUWT told Jewish News on Tuesday: “Wrack’s appointment is genuinely frightening. He does not represent us.”
A spokesperson for the NASUWT said the union was “not able to comment” on the legal action.
