The Network Rail ‘diversity officer’ on £160,000 a year
She’s paid more than PM – who she blasted for ‘white privilege’
BRITAIN’S highest paid public sector diversity officer earns more than the Prime Minister – despite once suggesting Boris Johnson had benefited from ‘white privilege’.
Loraine Martins, director of diversity and inclusion at Network Rail, takes home between £160,000 and £165,000 a year, official data shows. This is higher than the £157,372 that Mr Johnson received last year.
In 2018, when he was Foreign Secretary, Ms Martins shared an article on Twitter entitled: ‘Boris Johnson’s white privilege: Imagine he was a black woman.’
The piece, by Gary Younge of The Guardian, concluded: ‘If Johnson were a black woman, he’d have to be totally beyond reproach or he’d long since be finished. And since he cannot be better, we should finish with him.’
Ms Martins was one of 74 staff at Network Rail who earned more than £150,000 at the end of September last year, according to the Cabinet Office.
Her job is to ensure the railway are more ‘open, diverse and inclusive’. She was appointed to the role in 2012, and a Network
Rail spokesman said that over the past five years the female workforce has grown by 36 per cent. The spokesman said she is leaving the business later this month ‘after a decade of outstanding service’.
Ms Martins has also given her views on a range of other political issues. She expressed her rejection of a government-commissioned report into race and ethnic disparities, which found no evidence of institutional racism in the UK. Ms Martins liked a tweet by psychologist John Amaechi saying that the report ‘contradicts everything Black and Brown people know’, and directed her followers to a petition urging the Government to ‘reject the report’.
On another occasion, Ms Martins liked a tweet from comedian
Adil Ray about the awarding of Covid contracts two years ago. He wrote: ‘When other countries do it, it’s called corruption. But when Britain does it, we call it cronyism and lobbying.’
And Ms Martins posted a link to a petition calling for the Government to change the law to ban ‘hair discrimination’ in the UK.
The petition stated: ‘It isn’t difficult to find a black person who can speak about how their hair has affected their lives in both subtle and life-changing ways. It’s not OK for people to be targeted because of their hair.’
Network Rail’s code of business ethics states employees should ‘avoid conflicts of interest’, including through ‘political activities’.
Last night, Elliot Keck, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group, said: ‘Taxpayers are sick of paying for a platform for diversity demagogues.’ A government source said: ‘While rail commuters fork out cash and wait out in the cold for their delayed trains, Network Rail are diverting their cash to a diversity tsarina.
‘This diversity gravy train is one service Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, could do with cancelling, permanently’.
The Network Rail spokesman said: ‘Building a diverse and inclusive workforce, and improving accessibility on the railway for passengers, have been key business priorities for Network Rail.
‘Loraine is one of the most knowledgeable and well-respected individuals in these areas, and under her leadership we have made huge progress in transforming the culture of our business and the wider rail industry.’