Jeremy Corbyn receives standing ovation at National Union of Teachers conference

Updated

Jeremy Corbyn was given a standing ovation as he became the first political leader in living memory to address the National Union of Teachers' (NUT) conference.

The Labour veteran, a fervent opponent to the Government's planned academisation programme, brought the packed conference hall in Brighton to its feet as he took to the stage to accuse Tories of presiding over a "crisis in our schools".

The former backbencher, propelled to leader following last year's Conservative general election victory, said: "George Osborne used the Budget to announce the forced academisation of all schools.

"Let's be clear - this is an ideological attack on teachers and on local and parental accountability - it was nowhere in Tory manifesto, it's something that's just been dreamt up at the last minute and stuck into the Budget.

"I want schools accountable to their parents and their communities - not as a process of asset-stripping our facilities to be handed over to somebody else.

"There is not a shred of evidence that academies improve standards."

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