West Midlands election racism row teacher’s school speaks out

Mr May said he did not blame those “falling for the manipulated social media post and the clever juxtaposition of the false captions”.

But he said he was “horrified by the motives behind the TikTok post and especially the lack of remorse from the people who created it and shared it to over 800,000 people”.

He said there was a “political agenda that is aimed at dividing communities like ours”.

Miss Bennett had been unable to leave her home, he said, “because she decided she would like to help a friend and colleague with their political campaign for a couple of hours”.

He said the school would now work to restore her confidence and said she had been “blown away by the apologies from parents”.

The school has asked people who shared the footage to “do the right thing” and delete it.

Mr Yakoob told the BBC a group had sent the subtitled video footage to his media team, but he could not say more while his own investigation was ongoing.

“We need to get to the bottom of where it came from, who sent it, how it got sent out,” he said.

“If it has been doctored, then I am [a] victim as well as that poor teacher.”