Diversity training at the Home Office has increased since Suella Braverman took over leadership of the department, according to a report.
Before being appointed Home Secretary, Braverman insisted that such lessons were a waste of taxpayers’ money and called for them to be banned. However, it is being reported that in the first six and a half months of her leadership of the Home Office, the number of civil servants in the department receiving equality training increased from just over 80 a month to 126 under Braverman’s predecessor, Priti Patel.
The report says that in response to a parliamentary question from shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, Home Office minister Chris Philp revealed that 835 staff received the training between September 2022 and mid-March.
The training was a key recommendation by Wendy Williams in her Windrush review.
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In January, Braverman ditched three post-Windrush pledges made by Patel, including to create a post of migrants’ commissioner. A Westminster source told The Guardian: “It looks like Braverman’s commitment to end diversity training means about as much as her vow to stop the small boats.
“It’s yet another reminder that the louder a minister in this government shouts about an issue, the less they actually deliver.”
Last August, Braverman said diversity training was “divisive not inclusive”. She added: “it’s been patronising, not empowering.
Home Office diversity training increase under Suella Braverman’s leadership’
“It’s based on an assumption that me as an ethnic Asian woman from working-class roots must be a victim, necessarily oppressed.
“That’s a misassumption. And I think it creates division. It’s tearing up society, breaking down the fabric of our country. And I think it’s a waste of money.”
The Guardian says that the 69% of Home Office staff working in operational roles including migration and borders and homeland security will undertake online equality training later this year. A Home Office spokesperson told The Guardian that its staff were required to undertake regular learning and development across a range of topics.
