Potential Tory MPS taught about ‘white resentment’

Candidates being offered unconscious bias training despite moves to phase out such courses in Whitehall

CONSERVATIVE candidates for parliament are being given lessons on “white resentment” in diversity and inclusion training sessions.

Would-be Tory MPS are told white resentment is a “significant problem” for ethnic minorities and is defined as “when white employees suggest equality and diversity training is no longer required, as it provides ethnic minority employees with unfair advantages”.

Despite efforts by ministers to ban “woke” diversity courses for civil servants, similar workshops are being offered to Tory candidates via the party’s online training platform.

Tory candidates are offered unconscious bias training, a practice the government promised to “phase out” across Whitehall in 2020.

The Conservative Party’s training platform describes unconscious bias as being when you “discriminate against one group, or person, without being aware of your actions”.

The lessons refer to microaggressions, such as asking a black colleague “Why does your hair not look like ours?” and “Are you able to sit out in the sun as long without any sun cream?”.

Another example of unconscious bias cited is the mispronunciation of colleagues’ names.

One slide offers a case study: “I’d prefer for you not to shorten my name. It means God’s gift and my parents named it to me for a very specific reason. I’ve actually done you a favour and I’ve already shortened it. It’s Onyinyewchuckwu, can you please call me Onyinye?” Candidates are also given a list of terminologies and their definitions to study, including gender fluid, nonbinary, affirmed gender, pan-gender and poly gender.

Ed Barker, the Tory parliamentary candidate for Derby South and chief executive of Conservative Way Forward, said: “I don’t want the state, or the party I love, breathing down my neck telling me how to think. I hope this can be stopped immediately, otherwise we’ll have a whole new generation of Conservative candidates who think this is normal.

“Before Christmas, we published a report which found that £7billion of taxpayers’ money is being wasted on politically motivated campaigns that are dividing us and making us all poorer, including millions on unconscious bias training. It would be devastating if CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] was wasting party members’ money on divisive and contentious schemes like these.”

On Sunday, Suella Braverman ordered a review into “politically correct nonsense” in the Home Office after an internal note told staff not to use words such as “homosexual” or “mate” for fear of causing offence.

A Home Office source told The Daily 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.”

Meanwhile, Tory candidates are provided with a series of online lessons on everything from emotional intelligence to social media best practices.