Police force showed bias in rejecting straight man

A POLICE force which rejected a potential star recruit because he is a white heterosexual male has been found guilty of discrimination.

Matthew Furlong, 25, whose father is a serving Detective Inspector in Cheshire Police, had hoped to follow in his footsteps when he applied to join the force in 2017.

After making it through to the interview stage, he said he was told “it was refreshing to meet someone as well prepared as yourself” and that he “could not have done any more”.

But he was later told he had lost out to other candidates, leading his father to lodge a complaint.

Mr Furlong, who studied particle physics and cosmology at Lancaster University, has now won an employment tribunal case which found Cheshire Police discriminated against him on the grounds of sexual orientation, race and sex.

His lawyers say it is the first reported case of its kind in the UK, after the employment tribunal ruled that Cheshire Constabulary used positive action – where employers take steps to recruit certain groups of people with different characteristics – but in a discriminatory way.

Jennifer Ainscough, an employment lawyer at Slater and Gordon, said: “Matthew was denied his dream job simply because he was a white, heterosexual male.

“This is the first reported case of its kind in the UK where positive action has been used in a discriminatory way.”

The tribunal heard four days of evidence before reaching its conclusion, that Mr Furlong had been a victim of direct discrimination on the grounds of his sexual orientation, race and sex.

A spokesman for Cheshire Police said: “We have been notified of the outcome of the tribunal and will review the findings over the coming days.”