The Labour MP Stella Creasy has condemned a presentation on Brexit allegedly broadcast yesterday in 3,000 schools, and called on the prime minister to ensure schools remained free of Brexit “propaganda”.
Speaking in the House of Commons, the MP for Walthamstow called on Boris Johnson to reassure concerned constituents who had contacted her about the presentation, which appeared on digital noticeboards in schools.
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“Earlier today parents in Walthamstow contacted me extremely concerned about the content of a presentation about the prime minister’s proposals and Brexit that had been broadcast on what had transpired to be 3,000 digital noticeboards of primary schools around this country, without the prior consent of the schools,” Ms Creasy said.
“Given the amount of money this government is spending on Brexit adverts, can he at least reassure Walthamstow residents that in this instance it wasn’t his doing and give his personal pledge that our primary schools will remain Brexit propaganda-free zones.”
Mr Johnson replied: “Obviously the honourable lady is bringing me news about the schools in her constituency. What I can tell her is that we’re investing more in every primary school in this country by levelling up across the UK.”
The clips included the image of a Union Flag with the caption: “He [Mr Johnson] wants to unite the UK.”
Another caption read: “He had promised to put more money into schools, more money into the NHS and 20,000 police officers back on the streets.”
However, concerned parents were told yesterday that the presentations, which were broadcast by private digital company Anomaly, had been withdrawn following complaints.
Phil Austin, managing director of Anomaly, said the slides had been taken out of context as part of a wider presentation, and that there was no attempt to promote Boris Johnson or Brexit in the slides.
“We work with a range of schools and have never had complaints about any of our presentations. The slides were intended to promote citizenship and British values, and they present a balanced view of the prime minister, including the fact that people have very different opinions of him.
We have been accused of promoting Brexit, or that this is part of a paid campaign on the prime minister’s behalf. This is absurd and has caused both myself and my staff an enormous amount of stress. All of this has been based on a complete misinterpretation of the original slides, which were devised with the purpose of educating young children about how parliament works.”
