‘I was victim of DWP staff’s toxic politics’
POLITICAL activism has infiltrated Whitehall, according to an ex-civil servant sacked for whistleblowing.
Anna Thomas, 32, said Department for Work and Pensions staff were told to “assume” they were racist.
She says she was taught critical race theory while employed as a work coach at a Jobcentre in Portsmouth.
Asked to promote a Metropolitan Police jobs event that excluded straight white men, she told her superiors that this was concerning – before her boss complained about her.
Ms Thomas says she found herself fighting a lone battle with the DWP, which refused to accept it was at fault.
She claims she was subjected to harassment from colleagues, put on antidepressants, then long-term sick leave and eventually sacked from her position after a three-year row.
She said: “Our job is to be politically impartial, and you can’t do that if you’ve got a politicised environment.”
Her accusations come after Dominic Raab claimed he was deliberately ousted last month after a senior civil servant warned him about “increasingly activist civil servants mobilised by the FDA union”.
Suella Braverman also blamed an “activist blob of Left-wing lawyers, civil servants and the Labour Party” for stopping the Government tackling illegal Channel crossings this year.
The DWP intranet’s “anti-racism hub – launched in 2020 – urged staff to treat racism like Covid-19 and “assume that you have it”. Ms Thomas raised concerns its message was political, only to be told by colleagues she was being politically partial. She was then investigated for misconduct.
After being dismissed in 2021, Ms Thomas claimed unfair dismissal, belief discrimination, victimisation as a whistleblower and harassment. She was given a £100,000 settlement but the DWP did not admit liability.
A DWP spokesperson confirmed “an employment tribunal claim against the department was settled by agreement of all parties without the need for further legal proceedings”.