Every school will have a portrait of the King, a Union Jack and a ‘patriotic’ curriculum that teaches them about empire, Reform UK have pledged if they win the next election.
Announcing the plans ahead of St George’s Day, Nigel Farage’s party said every school in England would be required to honour the patron saint’s day if it took power.
The party said it wanted to ‘end the ideological capture of our classrooms’ by introducing a new history curriculum to ‘honour our island story with pride’.
Reform’s education spokesman Suella Braverman accused previous governments of ‘promoting their mass migration agenda’ in schools.
The party said children were taught to be ‘ashamed’ of Britain’s past and were not taught about its men and women who fought for freedom.
It highlighted a survey by Policy Exchange that found that only 20 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds have a positive view of Winston Churchill.
Outlining the case for change, the survey also showed that only 41 per cent of 18 to 27-year-olds – Gen Z – said they were proud to British.
Reform said children should be taught the ‘true story’ of Britain – not history taught through a ‘progressive lens’.
Reform, which has made former Tory minister Suella Braverman its new education spokeswoman, could allow them to be set up via the free school system
Under their plans to overhaul classrooms, British history would form a minimum of 60 per cent of the curriculum.
This would have to reflect a ‘patriotic’ history of the British Isles ‘instead of one that has been retrofitted to justify mass immigration’, they said.
Events such as the Magna Carta, the Wars of the Roses, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, the Act of Union, the Enlightenment and Victorian Britain would take centre stage.
All schools would be required to display the King’s portrait in a common area visible to all students under those plans.
The party said that in 2024, every state-funded school in the country was offered a free portrait of the King, but only 34 per cent took up the offer.
Every school would have to fly the Union Jack under their plans, with the party funding flagpoles which only that flag can be flown from.
Their plans would apply to devolved nations, with Scotland and Wales flying their flags and celebrating their national days.
Ms Braverman said: ‘Tory and Labour governments have failed a generation of young people with a substandard curriculum that undermines academic rigour and national identity in favour of promoting their mass migration agenda.
‘Reform will end this. As Education Secretary I will introduce a new curriculum that will rekindle national pride and ensure that every child leaves school with an understanding of what a privilege it is to be British.’
It came as a bombshell poll showed the Greens and Reform are expected to do well in London in the local elections, taking seats off Labour.
The YouGov MRP predicted that Reform will be the best-supported party in Labour-run Barking and Dagenham, Conservative-run Bromley, and Havering, which is currently under no overall control.
Mr Farage said in December that his party had a ‘very real chance’ of winning in ‘half a dozen’ London boroughs.
