In a scathing opinion piece, former Conservative minister Esther McVey has blamed New Labour's Equality Act 2010 for what she describes as the "march of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion madness". Writing for the Express, McVey said the Jason Arday scandal at Cambridge University is "the tip of a massive iceberg".
Arday appointment and harassment complaint
McVey highlighted the appointment of Jason Arday as a professor at Cambridge University despite his lack of research and publications compared with others in similar positions. She claimed the selection panel was so intent on meeting diversity goals that they were prepared to damage the university's global reputation for academic brilliance.
She also noted that when Times Higher Education journalist Jack Groves emailed Arday with legitimate questions about his academic record and claims of raising £5.5 million for charity, Arday and his representatives lodged a formal harassment complaint with the police. The Metropolitan Police spent four months investigating before dropping the case and apologising to Groves.
Broader EDI disasters
McVey argued that this "wrong-headed, politically correct EDI philosophy" has taken root in the police, citing guidance like anti-racist commitments that saw officers treat murder victim Henry Nowak as the perpetrator because he was white. She also referenced the Tavistock Clinic scandals and the case of Valdo Calocane, who killed three people after mental health workers released him for fear of being considered racist.
Despite these cases, McVey said the EDI bandwagon rolls on because it remains a "shibboleth of the left-wing progressives" and has become big business for corporations with a vested interest in perpetuating it.
Origins and growth of EDI
McVey traced the roots of modern EDI to the 1960s and 1970s, when the UK developed strict anti-discrimination laws like the Race Relations Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, and the Equal Pay Act. However, she said US corporations introduced the American concept of 'Managing Diversity' to the UK as they expanded globally.
She argued that New Labour's Equality Act 2010 gave birth to modern EDI, merging nine separate pieces of anti-discrimination law into a single framework and providing a statutory duty for public bodies to actively eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity. This created a massive demand for diversity managers, training suppliers, and consultants.
In 2020, the Big Four accountancy firms partnered with the World Economic Forum to build a universal financial framework that forced these corporate policies onto the world's largest companies, placing EDI at the centre of international finance.
Call for change
McVey noted that EDI is now valued at approximately $15.4 billion globally and set to grow to $27 billion by 2030. She called for the Equality Act to be "radically altered" before it causes more damage to the UK, its citizens, and institutions.
"Labour won't do it – this politically correct nonsense is in its DNA – but the next government needs to make it a top priority to sort this out once and for all," she wrote.
