Government appoints Stonewall critic to equalities watchdog
A BARRISTER and part-time judge who accused Stonewall of misrepresenting the law is being lined up by ministers to help oversee the country’s equalities watchdog, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.
Akua Reindorf, who was criticised by transgender rights activists after calling for a university to reconsider its ties to the campaign group, has been asked to sit on the board of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
The appointment is likely to draw controversy after Ms Reindorf was condemned by some campaigners for a report in which she said Essex University failed to uphold free speech when it dropped two speakers accused of transphobia.
But insiders suggested that Ms Reindorf ’s place on the EHRC board, which provides “strategic oversight” of the regulator, would help to bolster free speech and women’s rights, amid concerns that women have faced professional penalties for expressing feminist views labelled “gender-critical”, and lost the use of some single-sex facilities. A Whitehall source highlighted Ms Reindorf ’s “track record of fighting discrimination”.
Ms Reindorf, a barrister specialising in employment and discrimination law who was appointed as a part-time judge last year, is understood to have been appointed as an EHRC commissioner by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary and equalities minister, who installed Baroness Falkner, a former Lib Dem peer, as EHRC chairman in 2020. The announcement of her appointment is expected within days.
Earlier this year, Lady Falkner told this newspaper that she wanted the regulator to demonstrate that “we are the equality body for everyone”, as she admitted that it had previously been seen to have “got lost in ... rabbit holes that are quite esoteric”.
The appointment comes as the EHRC is drawing up guidance that will advise NHS hospitals on preserving single-sex wards and offer reassurance to businesses on the legality of keeping male and female toilets – in a move disclosed by this newspaper in October. The guidance, which is expected to be issued early next year, follows a series of highly-charged controversies over the use of women-only facilities by trans hospital patients, prisoners and staff.
Ms Reindorf carried out a review for Essex University after two professors were disinvited from events at the institution in 2019 and 2020.
Her report, published earlier this year, concluded that examples of harassment included in the university’s policy on supporting trans and nonbinary staff “might lend credence” to the idea that newspaper letters on trans issues, signed by the two women, could “amount to or lead to unlawful harassment”. “This policy is founded on an erroneous understanding of the law,” Ms Reindorf wrote. “The policy is reviewed annually by Stonewall, and its incorrect summary of the law does not appear to have been picked up by them. In my view the policy states the law as Stonewall would prefer it to be, rather than the law as it is.”
Stonewall, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity, has come under sustained criticism from some MPs over its “diversity champions” programme, which includes guidance on gender-neutral spaces and the use of pronouns.
Ms Reindorf said the university should reconsider its ties with the charity. The Trans Legal Project, which supports transgender rights campaigners, criticised Ms Reindorf ’s “approach and analysis”. Stonewall insisted that its advice was based on guidance by the EHRC, which had been reaffirmed by the High Court.
Maya Forstater of the Sex Matters campaign group said: “I think her report on Essex University was excellent and it highlighted the need to protect everyone’s rights and consider the balance of rights between people with different protected characteristics. I am very happy to hear that she has been appointed.”
The job advertisement for a new EHRC commissioner said a candidate with a “strong legal background” would be “desirable”.
Ms Reindorf and the Government Equalities Office declined to comment. A source said the appointment followed “a full public recruitment process in line with all the usual guidance”.