Ex-Tory Lawmaker: UK’s RAF Should Recruit the Best Irrespective of Sex & Ethnicity
14:32 GMT 19.08.2022 (Updated: 15:20 GMT 28.05.2023)
© AFP 2023 / POOL / PHILIP COBURN
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An "effective pause" has allegedly been placed on recruiting white males in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in order to meet "diversity targets," Sky News reported on Tuesday, adding that this “pause” purportedly prompted the RAF’s head of recruitment to resign in protest in recent days. The RAF denies the allegations.
"I think a lot of people have been very surprised, not least in the Armed Forces themselves have been very surprised to hear that there has been a particularly strong positive discrimination in favour of ethnic minorities in the Royal Air Force," Matthew Gordon-Banks, a former Tory lawmaker and retired senior research fellow at the UK’s Defence Academy, explained.
Gordon-Banks suggested that neither the UK Army nor the Royal Navy lack appropriate diversity: "We've seen considerable changes in recent years in our army and even those soldiers who guard the Queen on ceremonial duties ̶ we're seeing a wide range of ethnic minorities also serving, not just white faces," he said.
However, the RAF has possibly become the least attractive service given the fact that the UK has reduced its number of planes and ships, according to the former British lawmaker. He does not rule out that the RAF is "suffering from recruitment problems which have exacerbated the potential lack of diversity at the current time."
6 August 2022, 11:14 GMT
Gordon-Banks went on to recall that the head of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, "made clear that he wanted the Royal Air Force chiefs to make diversity a priority” in his very first speech as the combined head of the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force in December 2021.
"So that means, in my view, that the combined head of our Armed Forces is the person who actually started this particular issue," Gordon-Banks claimed. "And the head of the Royal Air Force, Chief Marshal Sir Michael Wigston, subsequently committed to doubling the number of women to 40% in the RAF by 2030 and also having 20% ethnic minorities serving in our Air Force. And this seems to be a target which has been described as too far, too fast, and in pursuing it, it actually puts diversity targets ahead of ensuring what is best for our Armed Forces operational effectiveness."
Gordon-Banks emphasized that he would be the first to say that having a good ethnic minority and diverse mix in the Armed Forces which reflects the multicultural kind of country that the UK is, is a positive thing. However, it should not come at the expense of operational effectiveness, the former Tory politician noted.
The head of the RAF’s recruiting team – herself a senior female officer whose identity has not been disclosed – recently resigned "in disgust at what reports claim is the imposition of a de facto recruitment freeze on white men in favour of women and candidates from an ethnic minority background," according to the Daily Mail.
"The very idea that a female group captain, head of recruitment of the Royal Air Force, has felt it necessary to tender her resignation because she believes that operational effectiveness is being hindered by an alleged stopping of recruitment of white faced recruits in order to boost ethnic minority recruitment is clearly ridiculous, and that such a senior officer should feel it necessary to tender her resignation highlights a very serious issue, but it's an issue which is being created by the very head of our Combined Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin himself," highlighted Gordon-Banks.
17 August 2022, 05:57 GMT
"Then you look at the head of the RAF and he's prepared to break the operational requirement of the air force just to meet diversity [targets]," one source said, as quoted by Sky News. Sources within the British Armed Forces have argued that these diversity targets are "impossible."
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, a contender to become the UK's prime minister, has recently commented on the emerging controversy. "The only thing that should matter in recruitment is the content of your character, not your sex or the colour of your skin," a spokesperson for the Sunak campaign said. "That the Ministry of Defence would allow Britain's security to potentially be put at risk by a drive for so-called 'diversity' is not only disgraceful, it is dangerous."
For its part, the RAF disputed the allegations, insisting that there is no pause in RAF recruitment and no new policy with regards to meeting in-year recruitment requirements, according to Sky News.
"What we should be doing in the UK is ensuring that we are recruiting the best irrespective of ethnicity," Gordon-Banks concluded.
