Labour would help schools to train young male influencers who can counter the negative impact of people like Andrew Tate, the shadow education secretary has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Bridget Phillipson said that in order to combat sexual harassment, Labour wanted schools to develop role models who could provide a “powerful counterbalance” to Tate and others like him.
Tate is a self-professed “misogynist” influencer who has amassed 8.8 million followers on X, and has continued to use his platform even as he faces rape and human-trafficking charges in Romania.
The Labour party announced plans on Tuesday to help schools develop young male mentors and to teach pupils how to question the material they see on social media from people like Tate.
“Young male mentors within schools would be a powerful counterbalance to some of the negativity that young men might be exposed to online,” Phillipson said. She expressed hopes that some of the young men who became leaders in their schools could then reach more people by becoming online influencers themselves.
“I would hope that the young male mentors involved would then also be able to share their experiences more widely, to kind of shift the discussion around what it is to be growing up as a young man today in modern Britain,” Phillipson said.
Under the proposals, Labour would send “regional improvement teams” into schools to train staff on introducing the peer-to-peer mentoring programme.
“I do think it is incredibly important that, if we are going to tackle misogyny in our schools and in wider society, then we need to start making progress with children and young people,” Phillipson said.
“It also has to be young men and young women alike; we can’t just leave it to young women to call out unacceptable behaviours or report issues that are happening. It’s really powerful if men all step in and make clear that kind of sexist or misogynistic behaviour is not acceptable, and they don’t tolerate it either.”
Phillipson said schools should tackle the problem of Tate and other misogynistic influencers “head on” and talk to pupils about it.
“I think there is a risk that sometimes we don’t give young people enough credit for already starting to understand some of what is out there. Pretending that this isn’t a problem is not the answer,” she said.
“I do believe it’s important that young people have the ability to interrogate what’s in front of them, to have the kind of critical-thinking skills to assess what they’re seeing.”
A Labour government would consider introducing lessons on how to spot disinformation as part of a wider review of the school curriculum.
“It’s not simply about understanding how to use technology,” Phillipson said. “It’s about having the skills to question what’s in front of you, to challenge, to think, ‘Why is this being presented in a certain way?’”
Phillipson said her own children, aged seven and 11, did have smartphones but that she and her husband limited what they could see and how many hours they spent using them.
She did not back calls from some parents for children to be denied smartphones or to be banned from social media platforms until they were older.
“It is difficult to turn the clock back now,” she said. “All parents, particularly parents with children at secondary school, will know that it’s essential to have some degree of online access because much of the homework has been set online.”
Phillipson’s biggest focus is on childcare and early-years education, and she is drawing up an alternative to the current system of free childcare hours.
Labour is considering creating nursery places inside existing primary schools and has tasked David Bell, the former permanent secretary at the Department of Education, with looking into different options.
“We need better alignment between early-years education and the school system overall, so that they’re better joined together,” Phillipson said. “We are, at the moment, already starting to see schools with surplus classrooms. And I think that does present an opportunity for some creative thinking about how we can use that in the future.”
Phillipson has visited Estonia, Ireland and Australia to look at how other countries provide childcare. She said in Estonia there was a strong connection between early-years provision and school “that means that they don’t experience the same gaps in attainment”.
Teachers’ unions welcomed the proposals to tackle sexism and improve digital literacy in schools. Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said schools would welcome more support on how to respond to the online sexism and sexual harassment that young people encounter, describing it as an “overwhelming” and constantly changing challenge.
“Using education to prevent sexist ideas and attitudes is vital – but only with a whole-school approach and an approach that’s supportive of schools,” he said.
Dr Patrick Roach, the general secretary of the NASUWT union, said its research had shown sexual harassment and sexist abuse towards female teachers and pupils in schools and colleges was commonplace, and that the majority of incidents were not reported or dealt with effectively.
“Sexism and misogyny have no place in our schools and colleges, and it is vital that every action that can be taken is taken to stamp out such abuse,” he said.
The schools minister, Damian Hinds, said the mandatory relationships, sex and health education curriculum already included teaching on healthy relationships and online safety.
He added: “Our behaviour guidance helps schools stamp out inappropriate behaviour, social media firms are now required by law to protect children from harmful content online, and just last week, the education secretary took robust action by prohibiting the use of mobile phones in schools.”
