INCOMING National Education Union (NEU) head Daniel Kebede said striking teachers will win because “we have justice on our side,” during a huge rally in central London today.

The ex-primary and secondary teacher, who is set to take charge of Britain’s biggest teaching union in September, was one of many speakers to address thousands of educators in Parliament Square.

The rally, which followed a march across Westminster Bridge and a demo outside the Department for Education, came as NEU members held a seventh day of strike action across England’s schools since February.

The industrial action will be repeated tomorrow after members of all four of the country’s education unions overwhelmingly rejected a below-inflation 4.5 per cent wage offer. 

A raucous crowd braved changeable weather to ensure Tory Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, who has refused to meet unions for months, could not ignore calls for an end to unfunded pay deals and further erosion to take-home salaries and school funding following a decade of austerity.

Amid a sea of NEU and TUC flags, there were chants of “Come on, Gill, pay the bill” and some attendees held up placards reading “The system is broken and so are we” and “Schools just wanna have funds.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was attending a service marking 75 years of the NHS in nearby Westminster Abbey, did not escape their wrath, with loud boos and chants of “Rishi Sunak, shame on you!”

Mr Kebede stressed he is “proud to be a teacher and proud to be part of the NEU” as he warned of possible co-ordinated strikes by school leaders and teachers in the autumn term alongside a march on the Tory Party conference in Manchester this October.

The union’s joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted slammed claims from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey that public-sector wage increases would add to already 40-year-high inflation, despite evidence showing rampant corporate profiteering is at fault.

“A public-sector pay rise would mean teachers don’t have to skip meals — it would mean they can pay their mortgages,” she noted. 

Paul Whiteman, leader of head teachers’ union NAHT, blasted the “shameful” situation, while Geoff Barton of fellow school leaders’ union ASCL offered mock praise for Ms Keegan for “uniting the profession.”

Ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell was among the left-wing Labour MPs present to offer solidarity.