A government spending watchdog has said that only black, female, or impoverished candidates will be considered for an upcoming taxpayer-funded paid internship, sparking accusations of discrimination against middle-class white males.
A clause in the Equality Act 2010, which allows for private companies and public bodies to use “positive action” to “address disadvantage or under-representation” of certain ethnic or sexual groups in hiring, has seen a government programme being accused of being racist towards native British males.
According to the Daily Mail, a paid summer internship by the government-funded National Audit Office (NAO) spending watchdog said that it would only be open to either black, female, or poor in a bid to support “diverse talent”.
The £25,089 six-week position will therefore be unattainable for white males from middle- to upper-class backgrounds, regardless of merit.
In addition to the salary, the internship is pitched as being a significant leg up in terms of networking and learning from “experienced colleagues”, avenues of career advancement which will apparently be shut off to some based on their race.
An NAO spokesman said: “Our long-running diversity internship schemes offer valuable work experience in the audit sector.
“The internship opens doors to people who are under-represented in the sector including anyone from less affluent backgrounds.”
Nigel Farage has made the elimination of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies and so-called “positive discrimination” a key plank of his Reform UK party’s pitch to the public. This has been magnified by the recent trial for the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who died in police handcuffs after officers refused to believe that he had been stabbed by Sikh man Vikrum Digwa, who accused Nowak of being racist.
Mr Farage has argued that the mindset of the DEI agenda infects the way that people process information, leading to a system of “two-tier” justice, in which authorities are biased against the native white population of Britain.
Commenting on the NAO internship barring middle-class white males, Reform UK Shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf said that it was “blatant discrimination” and that positions should solely be determined “on merit”.
“This is anti-white, anti-merit ideology masquerading as diversity and inclusion,” he said.
Former Homes Secretary and Reform UK Shadow Education and Equalities Minister Suella Braverman added that the “anti-white racism and anti-male sexism” was only allowed to persist because of the Equalities Act and therefore a Reform UK government would “get rid of this divisive law and ensure that meritocracy is upheld in the workplace.”
“We will ensure that no one – be it pregnant women, disabled people, white men or ethnic minorities- is discriminated against because of their personal characteristics,” Braverman said.
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