Halton Borough Council and Liverpool City Council have committed to writing to all schools within their local authorities reminding them of their legal obligations against political indoctrination.

This follows warnings from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) regarding a National Education Union (NEU) workshop, that is intended to encourage teachers to promote pro-Palestinian agendas in schools.

UKLFI wrote to the Secretary of State for Education, and all MPs and local authorities in Liverpool, alerting them to an upcoming NEU workshop in Liverpool where NEU members will be trained in how to ‘advocate for Palestine in our schools’. UKLFI explained why this call for teachers to promote partisan political views in schools goes against the government’s policy on political impartiality in schools and encourages teachers to breach legal prohibitions on indoctrination in schools.

In response to UKLFI’s warnings, Halton Borough Council has confirmed that they “will send a reminder to all headteachers, asking them to remind teachers of their contractual obligations and professional standards in relation to neutrality”. Similarly, Liverpool City Council has affirmed their commitment to complying with their legal obligations and agreed to remind all schools in their area of their legal obligations relating to the prohibition of the promotion of partisan political views in teaching.

UKLFI alerted the schools to the concerted effort by the NEU and several of its individual members to campaign assiduously for Palestine, and to bring this campaign into schools. There is already a risk that members could be unlawfully spreading their partisan political views to their pupils. The NEU has run similar workshops and conferences aimed at promoting the Palestinian cause in schools, and has vowed to produce resources that ‘raise awareness’ of the situation in Palestine.

The NEU is formally affiliated with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and supports its aims and objectives, including (among others) campaigning against Israel, and building the maximum unity in action in support of this. There is also significant overlap in the executive personnel between the NEU and the PSC.

The NEU recently passed a motion at its annual conference in April 2025 accusing Israel of carrying out ‘apartheid’, with many of its members having additionally accused Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’. These false accusations, in this context, accord with the examples of antisemitism set out in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working  definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by the UK government.

Section 406 of the Education Act 1996 requires the local authority, governing body and head teacher to forbid the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject or any aspect to the curriculum (and the pursuit of any partisan political activities by under 12s). Section 407 requires the local authority, governing body and head teacher to take steps to ensure the balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues when they are brought to the attention of pupils. Similar requirements are imposed on academies and independent schools in England and Wales under the Education (Independent Schools Standards) Regulations 2014.

If teachers advocate for Palestine in schools, which the NEU’s meeting calls for, or disseminate misleading or biased resources about the conflict, these provisions will be breached.

Caroline Turner, director of UKLFI commented: “The NEU appears to be defying government guidelines on political impartiality in schools, by persuading teachers to brainwash children into supporting the Palestinian cause. This is extremely concerning and we are pleased that Halton Borough Council and Liverpool City Council appear to have recognised this risk, and are reminding schools of their legal obligations. We hope other councils will follow suit, and that MPs will also work to counter the risk of political indoctrination in schools.”