BNP member loses appeal against teaching ban

BBC News reports on the court case involving a member of the British National Party who was banned from teaching for life following an incident in 2011.

Adam Walker was initially handed a minimum two year ban after he verbally abused a group of boys and slashed their bike tyres. The ban was extended to life by Education Secretary, Michael Gove, in 2013 after concluding that while Walker may have been provoked his actions were “violent and threatening”.

Walker, in court to appeal against the lifetime ban, said he was being targeted for his politics but “Judge Heaton ruled there was “no evidence” that Mr Gove had intervened in the case and he did not find that the life ban was unfair.

“He concluded: “I reject [Mr Walker’s] argument as lacking any credible evidential base at all.””

Walker now works for the two MEPs elected for the BNP in 2009, Nick Griffin and former member, Andrew Brons.

In 2010, Gove spoke of plans to introduce powers to allow headteachers and governing bodies to act with confidence and dismiss teachers engaging in extremist activity. He said, “I don’t believe that membership of the BNP is compatible with being a teacher.

“I would extend that to membership of other groups which have an extremist tenor. I cannot see how membership of the British National party can co-exist with shaping young minds.”