TRADE union leaders, MPs and members of Labour’s national executive committee have called on the Labour leadership to support the National Education Union’s call for schools not to open from Monday except for vulnerable children and children of key workers.

The NEU has advised its members not to enter schools which open as normal on health and safety grounds and is calling on the government to shift schooling online until schools are safe.

Despite record infection rates, the Labour leadership has so far refused to support trade union calls for learning to be shifted online, attacking the government’s “chaotic” policy but declining to propose an alternative.