British schools that sign up to the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme will be required to teach pupils about European integration, display the EU flag and acknowledge the European project’s benefits — conditions that Conservative MPs say amount to government-sanctioned propaganda aimed at children as young as four.
Labour finalised the UK’s return to the £570 million-a-year scheme this week, with ministers describing it as a significant opportunity for young people to study and work on the continent. But details buried in the small print of the agreement have drawn fierce criticism from Tory politicians, who argue the accompanying obligations undermine political neutrality in classrooms and represent a deliberate effort to reshape public opinion on Brexit.
Under the scheme’s rules, schools, colleges and universities receiving taxpayer-funded grants must incorporate EU subjects into their curricula, with the stated aim of strengthening European identity. Institutions are also obliged to display the EU flag prominently and formally credit the EU for funding, with fines of tens of thousands of pounds threatened for non-compliance. The EU’s golden star emblem must additionally appear on all conferences, seminars, printed materials, social media output and any associated equipment or infrastructure.
Tory MP Saqib Bhatti described the arrangement as “a thinly veiled attempt to brainwash children, with EU propaganda beamed right into their schools, colleges and universities,” accusing Sir Keir Starmer of “resorting to mind control” to reverse Brexit by stealth. Fellow MP Mike Wood called Erasmus “a Trojan horse for the EU propaganda machine,” arguing that British taxpayers were being asked to fund the promotion of a political project the country voted to leave a decade ago.
Opposition anger was compounded by the Government’s decision to proceed with rejoining the scheme without a parliamentary debate or vote. Critics also pointed to the cost — roughly double the figure Boris Johnson rejected as too expensive when he declined to participate in 2021.
To fund the move, Labour intends to close the Turing programme, which allowed disadvantaged British students to study globally — beyond Europe — at considerably lower cost, since it did not require the UK to fund incoming foreign students.
Erasmus’s own documentation states that its goals include promoting “a common European identity” and the “corporate communication of the political priorities of the Union” — language that has added fuel to Conservative accusations that the scheme serves a political as much as an educational purpose.
A Government spokesman defended the decision, stating that schools remained legally bound to political impartiality and that rejoining Erasmus would not alter that obligation. “Erasmus will enable hundreds of thousands of children and young people to access life-changing opportunities to travel and study abroad,” the spokesman said.
The row forms part of a broader debate over Labour’s approach to EU relations. Senior figures within the party have made little attempt to conceal their ambitions for closer ties with Brussels, with a minister last week describing a warmer relationship with the continent as “patriotic.” Sir Keir himself has cited the shifting international landscape, including strained relations with the United States following the conflict in the Middle East, as grounds for deepening partnerships with European allies.
