Teacher strike: NUT's Christine Blower on Gove talks

The head of the UK's largest teaching union said she would "very much like there to be talks" with Education Secretary Michael Gove ahead of a planned strike in England and Wales.

The NUT is planning industrial action on 26 March in a dispute over performance-related pay, working conditions and a new pension package.

General Secretary Christine Blower told the Daily Politics that teachers' morale was "very poor at the moment".

Asked by presenter Andrew Neil if she belonged to the "blob", said to be the name given by Mr Gove to forces in education that oppose his reforms, she said: "Sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not."

She added: "I'm actually very pleased to be associated with a lot of people who are in the blob. But I have to say it's not the case in other jurisdictions that education ministers go around gratuitously insulting people who are really engaged and enthusiastic about education."

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