RAF chief's regrets over plan to favour women and ethnic minorities

RAF chief’s regrets over drive for diversity as he insists plan to favour women and ethnic minority candidates would not have led to drop in standards

• RAF has launched inquiry into how controversial selection policy was devised
• Chief of the Air Staff Sir Mike Wigston has told of his regret over the plan
• But recruitment chief refused to implement what she called an ‘unlawful’ policy

The head of the RAF has told of his regret over its plan to favour women and ethnic minority candidates over better qualified white males.

The ‘woke’ diversity drive was scrapped after the RAF’s recruitment chief refused to implement what she called an ‘unlawful’ selection policy.

Last night Chief of the Air Staff Sir Mike Wigston said the RAF had launched an inquiry into how such a controversial policy was devised and very nearly implemented.

He acknowledged for the first time the fall-out from the extraordinary row after a tense meeting with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and revealed that Group Captain Elizabeth Nicholl, who walked out rather than put the plan into practice, had requested the investigation.

Chief of the Air Staff Sir Mike Wigston said the RAF had launched an inquiry into how such a controversial policy was devised and very nearly implemented

Before her resignation she emailed senior officers saying: ‘This is unlawful. I am not prepared to delegate or abdicate the responsibility of auctioning that order to my staff.’

Documents seen by the Daily Mail suggest she was asked to ‘make offers of employment to additional women and EM [ethnic minority] candidates solely on the basis of their protected characteristics and in preference to non-EM men who had passed all selection criteria ahead of them’.

After his meeting with Mr Wallace, Sir Mike said: ‘Earlier this year we explored a recruiting practice to improve the diversity of our workforce. This policy was challenged and never implemented, but I regret that challenge led to our Head of Recruiting and Selection stepping down from her role. A non-statutory inquiry has been launched to understand the circumstances that led to her decision. This is in line with the wishes of the individual concerned.

He acknowledged for the first time the fall-out from the extraordinary row after a tense meeting with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, pictured above

‘We will always pursue a more diverse RAF in ways that are fair, and there is rightly a healthy debate inside the Royal Air Force about the best way to tackle this.’

Mr Wallace said later he had ‘every confidence’ in the RAF leadership ‘to recruit for a service that reflects the diverse society we serve in a legal and fair way’. 

He added: ‘Together we established there has been no dropping of standards required of potential recruits and there are no plans to do so in the future.’

The RAF has also been rocked by claims that pilots from the elite Red Arrows team sexually harassed and bullied female crew members.

It is understood some women required ‘consultant level psychiatric care’ and other alleged victims were discharged from the RAF over to mental and emotional health issues.

An official report into the misconduct claims is due later this year.

RAF chiefs are also facing questions over lengthy delays in producing the next generation of fast jet pilots as junior officers spend months flying desks rather than warplanes.

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