NEU threatens ‘biggest demo Manchester has seen for ages’ during Tory conference

National Education Union says government is rattled' after delegates vote for strike action in England in summer term

The National Education Union's leadership has threatened to organise a huge protest during the Conservative party conference, accusing Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, of being deluded about teachers' pay and staff shortages.

Kevin Courtney, the NEU's joint general secretary, told delegates to the union's annual conference: If you need to, you will organise the biggest demo Manchester has seen for decades on 2 October, you'll carry on a campaign right into the general election year. And you will win.