Braverman says Home Office ban on words like ‘mate’ is politically correct nonsense

SUELLA BRAVERMAN has declared war on “politically correct nonsense” at the Home Office after staff were ordered not to use certain words.

The Home Secretary issued a rebuke to officials and ordered a review in the wake of an internal event for civil servants at the Homeland Security Group earlier this month.

Attendees had been told not to call each other “mate” or use the words “homosexual” and “transsexual” as part of a 12-slide presentation on gendered language.

But Ms Braverman was quick to distance her department from the guidance and is understood to have been frustrated by the seminar on the “right” words for staff to use.

A Home Office source told The Telegraph:

“The Home Secretary has made her views very clear — she doesn’t want to see this kind of politically correct nonsense in the department. How can the word ‘mate’ be a problem between colleagues? There’s been a review of what happened and officials understand what’s to be expected in future.”

The “Lunch and Learn” discussion, held during working hours, had also urged civil servants to wear rainbow lanyards, include personal pronouns in email signatures and join the LGBT Civil Service network, the Guido Fawkes website reported.

Lee Anderson, the Tory MP for Ashfield and member of the home affairs committee, said: “I genuinely think that there are a tiny minority of out-of-touch Home Office managers in made-up jobs that lay awake at night thinking up solutions to problems that do not exist.

“They need to concentrate on serving the British taxpayer rather than their own ridiculous ideology.”

The Home Office’s LGBT network held five events in as many months last year, including an hour-long Power in Pride Trans Panel and a seminar on Challenging Assumptions of Masculinity to mark International Men’s Day.

A Home Office spokesman said the department was “committed to supporting diversity and inclusion”, adding that the slide show in question “was used as part of an internal event in the Home Office, and is not official departmental or Government guidance”.

‘A minority of Home Office managers in made-up jobs think up solutions to problems that don’t exist’