THE head of Britain’s biggest teaching union died yesterday, weeks before he was set to lead teachers into their first national strike since 1987.

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers since 2004, died of a heart attack at the age of 56. After an emergency meeting, the union vowed to press ahead with the one-day walkout on April 24.

Sinnott was an outspoken critic of pay settlements imposed on teachers and opposed the expansion of the government’s flagship city academies programme. However, the decision to strike over pay has divided the teaching profession, with many members acknowledging that the government’s offer of a 2.45% pay rise this year is higher than most other public sector settlements which have been below 2%.

Other unions have distanced themselves from the proposed strike, which is expected to close almost half the schools in England and Wales.

Sinnott had been holding out for at least 4.1%, calling on ministers the day before his death to avert a strike by meeting their demands.

The NUT, which Liverpool-born Sinnott joined in 1974, described his death as “catastrophic” but insisted the union would push on with its campaign. Christine Blower, who was yesterday appointed acting general secretary, said: “I know that he would have wanted the union to go ahead with all its campaigns because he believed in all of them with his heart as well as his head.”

The government has claimed that only one in 10 teachers voted for the strike.

Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, described Sinnott as a committed trade unionist and “doughty fighter”. Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said that, despite their differences over teachers’ pay, Sinnott shared a belief in “the power of education” to transform the lives of children and young people.

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