The British Transport Police are disadvantaging white, male applicants by excluding them from recruitment workshops.
The force is holding the workshops in London, Manchester, and Birmingham — but one would-be officer was turned away after being told they were for “women and black or ethnic minority” candidates only, reports The Metro.
“I am a white heterosexual male and also a member of the armed forces, how can a public service blatantly support this kind of discrimination and inequality in 2017?” he told the newspaper.
“I am going to withdraw my application due to having been treated in such a manner.”
Metro’s correspondent Harley Tamplin seemed incredulous that the veteran was upset at being discriminated against on the basis of his race and sex, describing him as having criticised the police force “for wanting to employ more women and people from ethnic minorities — yes, seriously”.
It is technically illegal to discriminate against job applicants on the basis of their race or sex in the United Kingdom — but so-called “positive action” provisions in the Equality Act 2010 provide a number of ways around this, allowing employers to target supposedly disadvantaged groups during the hiring process.
They may also choose “disadvantaged” applicants over equally qualified rivals in order to improve “representation” in the workplace — or offer paid internships from which white people are excluded, like flagship news programme Peston on Sunday.
The British Transport Police confirmed they are using “positive action” provisions in this case on their website, which states: “In line with our Positive Action initiative we are initially only offering this workshop to women and black/minority ethnic groups who are currently under-represented in the force.”
Police forces were urged to behave in this way in 2013 by the governing Conservative Party’s then police minister, Damian Green.
Green is now Prime Minister Theresa May’s right-hand man, serving in the post of First Secretary of State — which suggests discriminating against white people is approved of at the highest level in British politics.
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