MP visits school in secret due to Gaza protest plan

A Jewish MP has visited a school in secret after an earlier trip was postponed due to a planned protest against his stance on Gaza.

Damien Egan was set to visit Bristol Brunel Academy in September but the school became aware that local pro-Palestine campaigners were preparing to hold a demonstration.

At the time, the Bristol National Educational Union (NEU) wrote online that the cancelled visit was “a victory for education workers, parents and the community”.

Teachers were not told about the rescheduled visit. Egan, Labour MP for Bristol North East, told Politics West: “People have got a right to protest… but obviously with Members of Parliament that comes with security considerations.”

Egan said he “had a lovely visit, meeting the head… and the school council, the children, the questions, it was fabulous”.

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Jon Reddiford, who represents Bristol as a member of the NEU’s governing body, said staff had “no intention” of cancelling the original visit.

He told Politics West there had been discussion of staff wearing keffiyehs (cotton scarves) and watermelon badges, in support of Palestine, but the protest outside the school was “entirely independent”.

“(Staff) wanted to show their opposition to a supporter of a genocidal regime coming to their school,” he said.

“They wanted to show there was a different perspective, that he needn’t expect complete support for his views.”

Israel denies that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide, saying it has acted in self-defence.

It is widely accepted that more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

Details of the MP’s cancelled visit came to light in January, when Communities Secretary Steve Reed told a Jewish Labour conference that a colleague had been “banned from visiting a school… in his own constituency, in case his presence inflames the teachers”.

That led Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp to claim at Prime Minister’s Questions that Egan had been “prevented from visiting a school in his constituency because he’s Jewish”.

Reddiford said it was “categorically untrue” to claim that staff had wanted to protest because of Egan’s religion.

“There’s been lies in the press,” he said.

Asked what evidence there is that Egan “supports genocide”, Reddiford said that Egan is vice chairman of Labour Friends of Israel and has visited the country.

Egan said: “Having the opportunity when I was asked to go out and meet with people was a good thing to do.”

Labour Friends of Israel advocates for a two-state solution and does not receive any money from the Israeli government or the Israeli Embassy.

Its website says its work is paid for by “the generosity of members of the Jewish community and those who share our commitment to the State of Israel”.

“This group works with left-leaning organisations in Israel, but also in Palestine in the West Bank as well,” said Egan, who became an MP after a by-election in 2024.

“They’ve been pushing the government… to put money into a peace programme that will bring civil society organisations this year from Israel, from the West Bank, to come in and speak.”

Deputy leader of Bristol City Council Heather Mack, a Green councillor, said she was “glad” the school visit had been able to happen, but said she hadn’t heard Egan criticise the actions of the Israeli state.

“I think it’s tragic what’s happened in Gaza, of course I do,” Egan said.

A recent special Ofsted inspection of Bristol Brunel Academy found “no evidence of bias” in the day-to-day running of the school.

Cabot Learning Federation, which runs the school, said that an investigation is ongoing into “some online posts of concern”.

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