Ben Bradley MP has welcomed news that the Attorney General, Suella Braveman MP, has told officials to scrap diversity training in the Government Legal Department (GLD).
Previously, more than 1,000 employees in the Attorney General's department, including 600 lawyers, had participated in some 1,900 hours of diversity courses. During one lecture, participants were told that it was “not up to you as a white person” to tell black people whether or not a phrase was offensive, and were urged to instead “educate yourself as to why the phrase is offensive and stop using it”.
Mr Bradley has consistently opposed diversity training and previously made headlines for refusing to undertake unconscious bias training, which he described as “nonsense”. This decision was validated as the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities agreed that employers should phase out the training. The Commission also supported Ben’s argument that the collective term “BAME” is unhelpful as it divides “white” and “non-white” people, and assumes that people in each of these categories do not have individual differences. Ben has made the argument that using “BAME” leads to division, and that people should not be defined by labels.
Mr Bradley stated:
“After years of fighting against this junk - which wastes an extraordinary amount of time, money and energy - it’s refreshing to hear the Attorney General agrees with my views and is taking decisive action on the ‘zealots’ that are pushing these wokeisms ahead of common sense.
It’s concerning to think about how much government time has been wasted when you consider 1000 employees in the department have participated in some 1,900 hours of diversity courses. It’s right that they are being scrapped. I’ve argued a countless number of times that this kind of nonsense is actively causing MORE of a divide and the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities agreed with me!
I’ve spoken a lot in recent weeks about what I want our next Prime Minister to focus on, and one of those things is for them to take on the establishment and tackle this wasteful, harmful culture that is pushing a false perception of diversity. We need tough Ministers that will continue with this common-sense approach!”
