A police chief called for legislation to allow positive discrimination after his force was exposed for temporarily barring white candidates to boost ethnic minority recruitment.
West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable John Robins has defended racial discrimination in the hiring practices of police forces, saying, per The Telegraph, that he stood by his previous demand that “legislation should change” to allow for the prioritisation of ethnic minorities over white candidates.
A spokesman for the force said: “The Chief Constable’s position has not changed. It is a national view that he holds.”
Robins had previously argued in 2023 that other efforts to boost police diversity had failed and that, therefore, the government should introduce a law allowing for “positive discrimination.” He claimed that such a move would not result in a lowering of standards.
It came after the West Yorkshire Police was reported to have enacted a temporary ban on hiring white candidates while allowing applications from people from “under-represented groups”.
A whistleblower claimed that the force had even created a tier system of desirable ethnicities, with black and East Asian candidates being ranked “gold” in terms of desirability. In contrast, South-East Asians were reportedly ranked “silver,” and “white others,” including Irish and European candidates, were ranked as “bronze” tier.
The report sparked accusations of racial bias against white people and of positive discrimination, which is illegal in England and Wales.
Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss wrote on X: “It cannot stand that a police chief is openly pursuing racist hiring policies and making political statements. Again, decisions are being made by unaccountable people who have been captured by woke ideology. The Home Secretary should take back control.”
Conservative MP Neil O’Brien added: “What West Yorkshire police are doing with their racist hiring policies and division of different ethnic groups is skirting the edge of the law. It is no surprise to discover they have been pushing for the law to be changed to legalise these racist hiring policies.
“With gun crime in West Yorkshire at a record high, many people might think local police might have more important things to be focusing on.”
The police force has claimed that while minorities were given preferential access during the application stage, the same criteria would ultimately be used to assess all applicants during the hiring process.
The left-wing Labour government has shut down calls from the opposition to prohibit such practices by police forces, with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper claiming that the West Yorkshire Police was following “fair recruitment standards”.
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