\n<\/p>\n
The company running the House of Commons nursery and others across London has been criticised for publishing an article on its website praising Reform UK\u2019s conference and claiming anti-immigration protests were \u201cdriven by a sense of injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n
The article, which was taken down by LEYF nurseries after an approach by the Guardian, was written by its chief executive, June O\u2019Sullivan, after her visit to the party\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n
It described the government\u2019s budget as \u201cdisastrous\u201d, referred to the \u201cfrittering away of taxpayers\u2019 money\u201d, and used the pejorative nickname \u201cRachel from accounts\u201d to refer to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves.<\/p>\n
House of Commons authorities said they would remind the company of its responsibilities as a contractor when it came to public communications.<\/p>\n
LEYF (London Early Years Foundation), which runs 43 nurseries across 13 London boroughs and says it is committed to a diverse workforce, published O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s recollections on attending the event under the headline Musings from the Reform Conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a buzz of excitement,\u201d she wrote about her arrival, commending the \u201ceasy style, humour and confidence\u201d of Reform\u2019s chair, David Bull, who \u201ckept the audience hooked\u201d. Nigel Farage, the party\u2019s leader, was \u201ccommanding\u201d and played to the crowd \u201clike a seasoned frontman\u201d, she wrote.<\/p>\n
Citing what she described as Reform\u2019s desire to be seen as the \u201cvoice of \u2018ordinary people\u2019 who feel ignored\u201d, O\u2019Sullivan added that women had been raising concerns about issues including \u201cideological interference\u201d in education, \u201cwhere they feel children are being taught values that conflict with their own\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese worries underpin Reform\u2019s growing appeal to mothers,\u201d wrote O\u2019Sullivan, who claimed that a \u201csense of injustice\u201d had fuelled protests outside asylum accommodation, \u201coften led by mothers\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Protesters outside the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex. Demonstrations this summer outside asylum accommodation were \u2018often led by mothers\u2019, O\u2019Sullivan wrote.<\/span> Photograph: Yui Mok\/PA<\/p>\n While women have been at the forefront of some of the summer\u2019s protests, the piece did not refer to how far-right activists have been seeking to exploit concern about women\u2019s safety in local communities. In the case of the protests in Epping, Essex, some media coverage and social media heavily promoted the role of mothers, including Orla Minihane, who they did not mention was a Reform UK official and candidate.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan added in her piece: \u201cHistory shows the political potency of maternal protest \u2013 from Belfast to Chechnya to Argentina\u2019s Mothers of the Disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n She concluded by asking whether Reform \u201ccan disrupt\u201d, writing: \u201cThe real question is whether Reform can channel the march of the mums into a movement that can govern.\u201d<\/p>\n Concerns about the piece have been expressed by workers at parliament.<\/p>\n The Labour MP Stella Creasy said: \u201cI think there is a reasonable concern that an organisation working with our children needs to think more critically about the evidence and actual policy outcomes it hears at an event like the Reform UK conference.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Creasy also suggested O\u2019Sullivan had conflated broader trends about the growing concerns of mothers with specific events, adding: \u201cThe \u2018march of the mums\u2019 is not Epping.\u201d<\/p>\n She also noted the appearance at the Reform conference \u2013 not mentioned in O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s report \u2013 of a controversial doctor who used his main-stage speech to air a claim the Covid vaccine had caused cancer in the royal family. \u201cAn organisation working so closely with children also needs to think more critically about how it responds to the contents of a conference where anti-vaccination ideals were promoted,\u201d Creasy said.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan said in a statement that part of her responsibility was to remain informed about current affairs and to engage neutrally across the political spectrum. \u201cThis is to ensure that we understand the full landscape of all debates and policies which may affect children, families, and the early years sector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy recent presence at the Reform party conference on Friday 5 September was solely to observe and reflect, not to support. I want to be absolutely clear that my attendance at any political party conference should not be interpreted as an endorsement of a single party or its policies and that LEYF\u2019s values remain unchanged.\u201d<\/p>\n A House of Commons spokesperson said: \u201cLEYF is an independent organisation, and its staff are not employed by the House of Commons.<\/p>\n \u201cAny views expressed by the company do not reflect those of the house administration. All contractors are reminded of their responsibilities when it comes to public communications, and we will be speaking to the supplier to reiterate those expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The company running the House of Commons nursery and others across London has been criticised for publishing an article on its website praising Reform UK\u2019s conference and claiming anti-immigration protests were \u201cdriven by a sense of injustice\u201d. The article, which was taken down by LEYF nurseries after an approach by the Guardian, was written by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[14018,785,6582,7920,671,1661,633,14019,4211,838],"class_list":{"0":"post-22886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-commons","10":"tag-conference","11":"tag-criticised","12":"tag-house","13":"tag-london","14":"tag-nursery","15":"tag-praising","16":"tag-provider","17":"tag-reform"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}