A Conservative councillor has reportedly called for teachers to be sacked if they didn’t go to school on Monday because of fears about their safety.

David Burgess-Joyce, who sits on Wirral Borough Council in Merseyside, said sacking teachers ‘would have the desired result’ after several decided to stay away as schools returned for a day after Christmas.

Mr Burgess-Joyce was posting on social media in response to a post attacking teachers for not turning up for work during the pandemic, the Liverpool Echo reported.

According to the paper, the councillor wrote: ‘Should do what Reagan did when the Air Traffic Controllers decided to strike. He sacked those who didn’t return to work. Had the desired result.’

Primary school teachers were required to return to work for one day after the Christmas holiday on Monday before the Government abruptly announced a third lockdown that shut all schools.

Education unions had urged ministers to act sooner and announce a switch to online learning before schools were due to return.

Over the weekend some unions urged their members to write to head teachers to inform them they didn’t feel it was safe to go in.

Bora Oktas, the National Education Union’s North West regional officer, told the Echo: ‘Wirral residents will be aware that this is not the first time that Cllr Burgess-Joyce has made ill-informed, intemperate and offensive comments on social media.

‘Teachers have played an admirable and courageous role in protecting our communities from an alarming increase in local coronavirus rates.

‘We wouldn’t want to detract from that by providing his latest nonsense with undue oxygen, other than to say that any pent up frustration he has about the regrettable situation the nation finds itself in would be better directed at members of his own party’s parliamentary front-bench.’

All exams have now been cancelled following the closure of schools and the Department for Education is working out a way to grade pupils.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to outline to MPs a package of support for young people on Wednesday.

Cllr Burgess-Joyce, who represents the ward of Greasby, Frankby and Irby, has sought to justify his comments.

Speaking to the Echo, he said: ‘We have a generation of children and young people who have a massive gap in their education caused by Covid-19. If it is safe to do so all teachers should undertake their roles.

‘There are so many other important jobs in the NHS, supermarkets, utilities etc where we expect them to work to keep the UK going; why not teachers?’

It’s not the first time the Tory councillor’s comments have attracted criticism in recent years. He compared Labour MP David Lammy to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 2019. He was suspended from the Conservative group and has since apologised for the remarks.

Last year he also said that a proposal to review street names in Wirral associated with slavery was part of a ‘Marxist national coup’.

Then, earlier this year, he claimed Brits ‘love’ Donald Trump’s stand-offish approach to tackling coronavirus.

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