Kemi Badenoch says Stormont should no longer be part of a diversity scheme run by controversial LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall – and that public bodies should adopt an “evidence led” approach to workplace inclusion.

The Tory leader has told the News Letter that it is “yet another example of ministers handing power to unaccountable organizations” – and highlighted “extreme gender ideology” as an issue in the public sector.

She says ministers should not be “messing around” with issues such as biological sex “in order to get plaudits around diversity and inclusion”.

A political row began in Stormont last month when it emerged that the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) was still paying money to Stonewall for its ‘Diversity Champions’ programme – despite the majority of UK government departments ditching it.

placeholder image — Head of the NI Civil Service Jayne Brady waving a 'progress' flag - a contested symbol of the LGBTQ+ movement - at Belfast Pride.

NICS says that it uses Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index as “a key tool” in measuring “diversity and inclusion progress”. It also says that it treats Stonewall’s asks under it as “best practice criteria”.

Whitehall departments and organisations like the BBC left these schemes amid concerns over their influence on policy. Women’s rights groups in particular raised objections to employers introducing effective self-identification of gender on the back of Stonewall’s advice – a policy never legislated for in parliament.

The local civil service’s membership of the Stonewall scheme was defended recently by the Northern Ireland finance minister John O’Dowd as part of his department’s drive to be “inclusive” with a workforce “which has all its rights and entitlements in place”.

But Mrs Badenoch – a former UK equalities minister – told the News Letter that all government departments across the UK “should have left schemes like that”.

She said: “It is for governments to make laws and rules and regulations, not for external bodies. This is yet another example of ministers handing power to unaccountable organizations. The Stonewall that we have today is not the Stonewall which the reputation was built on, and people need to actually pay attention to what is happening.

“Biological sex is real. This is not something that ministers should be messing around with in order to get plaudits around diversity and inclusion, we need to be serious about what we're doing”. Asked if she had a wider strategy she would adopt in relation to diversity and inclusion, and its effect on the public sector, the former equalities minister highlighted “extreme gender ideology”.

“I was planning to change the law to ensure that sex in the Equality Act refer to biological sex, because many people have tried to interpret that as as ‘perceived or desired gender’.

“That needs to change. But if you look at a report that I put out last year on inclusion at work, it talked about an evidence led approach to all of these initiatives.

“It's not enough to have good intentions. We need to make sure that what we're doing works and it's actually good for social cohesion. We need to have equality under the law, not from different groups that are doing different things and being treated in different ways based on characteristics”.

In February, John O’Dowd told the Assembly that £2,575 “is given to Stonewall each year for services to the department and advice to the department” – and as with all advice, the department does not have to take that advice on board.

“But we are a fair employer department. We are an inclusive department. We want to see a workforce which has all its rights and entitlements in place, and we will take that advice from a number of sources as well”, he said.

A Stonewall spokesperson responded to criticism of the NICS involvement with its diversity scheme by saying the charity “is proud to support the hundreds of organisations, in both the private and public sector, across the UK and around the world that choose to join and be part of our Diversity Champions programme or the Workplace Equality Index.

“Our workplace inclusion programmes and initiatives are the gold standard for employers that want to embed equality for LGBTQ+ people in the workplace and has now been running for over two decades.

“Employers who commit to developing inclusive practices are taking important steps towards ensuring LGBTQ+ staff feel welcome and empowered to thrive. As a regulated, registered charity, we adhere to the Equality Act and EHRC statutory guidance”.