‘Labour wants to teach children to be ashamed of Britain’s past,’ claims Kemi Badenoch
Tory leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch has accused Labour of wanting to teach Britain’s children to be “ashamed” of the country’s history.
Back in 2022, the then-Equalities Minister tabled a move towards a new history curriculum covering “both sides” of the UK’s colonial past.
She had assembled an expert panel to help carry out her changes – but after the Conservatives were ousted in July, Badenoch’s review has been canned in favour of Labour’s own.
But the current Goverment’s controversial national curriculum review – which could herald the onset of further “negative” history teaching – now faces criticism for undermining the fabric of British society.
Speaking to The Daily Mail, Badenoch said: “We need to make sure people have a good understanding of history, but not try to rewrite history to the point where everyone is ashamed of their past.
“Young people now don’t want to join the army because they’re embarrassed about their country and they don’t think it’s worth fighting for.
“There is no future if the people who are here will not fight for this country.”
Defending her now-shelved plans for her “model curriculum”, the Shadow Housing Secretary said it would even help to integrate migrants in the UK.
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She said immigrants sometimes acted like “guests” in Britain without assimilating with its history, customs and culture – and claimed the UK’s status as a “multiracial country” was now a “fact that is not going to change”.
The North West Essex MP once again talked up her teaching pledges – claiming they could help bring unity to different groups in Britain.
“How do we make sure that we can teach history so that everybody has got a stake in it, and it’s not pitting one group against the other?” she asked.
Badenoch also claimed that Labour had axed her review because the party wants “the bad history – that you should be ashamed of your past”.
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Badenoch added: “That is why I worry about this Labour Government, because those of us who grew up with proper history are still finding it difficult.
“What is the world going to be like when we have several generations of people who have been taught that their country is bad? It’s not going to go well. And I want to fight that.”
It’s not just the “bad Britain” myth that Badenoch is seeking to bust – in the wake of heightened calls for Britain to pay billions of pounds of reparations to Caribbean countries, she said: “Slavery was not something that was unique to Western countries.
“It is still endemic in places in Africa and the Middle East. They may not call it that, but that’s what it is.”