NUT ballots on political fund

A quarter of a million teachers are set to receive a voting form from their union, the NUT, asking them to approve plans to establish a political fund.

The decision to ballot members on the creation of a fund was made at the NUT’s 2006 annual conference, shortly after the British National Party (BNP) had put up a number of candidates for local council elections in Barking and Dagenham. According to NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott, “The absence of a political fund meant that the union was unable to speak out as clearly as was needed against the BNP and its candidates.”

The union stresses that the ballot has nothing to do with affiliating to any political party or supporting particular election candidates. Sinnott says it is about allowing the union, at election times, “to say clearly and unequivocally: ‘Don’t vote fascist or racist, don’t vote BNP.’”

Two other schoolteaching unions, the NASUWT and the EIS, already have political funds, as does the UCU union for university and college lecturers.