TUC general secretary Paul Nowak backed an above-inflation pay award for education staff and Palestine solidarity in a speech at the National Education Union’s annual conference today.

He said: “[Education secretary] Gillian Keegan may think that Gaza is not the business of this conference but like on so many issues she is stone cold wrong.”

Delegates joined in his call for an immediate ceasefire and that a two-state solution was the only route to peace.