Reform UK’s Suella Braverman was heckled as she hit out at councils for failing white working-class children.
In a speech to the Local Government Association, she accused some administrations of being “more keen to support the children of Gaza than the children of Grimsby” and making youngsters “ashamed of our great country”.
Some members of the cross-party audience in Bournemouth interrupted her and others walked out as she criticised them.
Mrs Braverman, Reform’s education spokeswoman, said a “system failure and neglect of white working-class families” over decades had resulted in a situation where just 40% of children from that background get a Grade 4 – the standard definition of a pass – at GCSE maths and English.
She said they had been “betrayed by Westminster” and “not all councils, but some and too many, have failed some of their communities”.
“If local government had been more focused on supporting schools that focused on standards and rigour rather than promoting progressive causes then maybe some of these communities would be in a better position. Maybe this scandal would not have happened,” she said.
“For too long too many councils have supported damaging transgender ideology in their policies, want to support the exclusion of British culture and patriotism, are focused more on fashionable fads than actually dealing with special education needs.
“More keen to support the children of Gaza than the children of Grimsby, bearing down on our children and making them ashamed to feel British, ashamed of their great country.”
In response to the heckling, she said: “Local government plays a part. You can deny it, but the statistics show that our young people are being failed in many of our schools and I won’t stop standing up for them.”
