Equalities chief vows to fight trans row ‘coup’

Allies of Baroness Falkner say allegations of bullying at equalities watchdog are ‘nonsense and ideological’

THE head of the equalities watchdog is “determined to fight” an attempted coup by civil servants over her trans stance, her allies have said.

Baroness Falkner of Margravine, 68, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), is at the centre of a vicious internal row after her own officials filed a dossier of complaints about her, alleging bullying and harassment.

It has plunged the watchdog, which is tasked with upholding equality law in Britain, into crisis and opened a schism between its expert board members and civil servants who implement their decisions.

An employment barrister, Gavin Mansfield KC, of Littleton Chambers, has been drafted in to investigate the 40 complaints, costing taxpayers £100,000, but Lady Falkner is having to pay tens of thousands of pounds from her own pocket for lawyers to defend herself.

Her allies told The Daily Telegraph she was “determined to fight this” and dismissed the complaints as “ideological”, “vexatious”, “trivial” and a “political chess game”.

Insiders said she had been “close to tears on a few occasions” in recent weeks and had been heard to mutter under her breath: “Why would anyone want to go into public service?”

A senior EHRC source said: “She’s defending herself against this investigation. She’s engaging in good faith and is very clear that she wants to clear her name.” Another insider said the saga “overlaps” with separate recent cases of “kid-glove” Whitehall officials making grievances about Cabinet ministers.

The case coincides with the EHRC’S latest attempt to defend gender-critical views in the transgender debate. Lady Falkner advised ministers to update the definition of “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act to make clear that it refers to biological sex, not any self-ascribed identity.

Among the staff complaints is that there is “a lack of psychological safety, i.e. the fear of who will be attacked next” and that they are “worried that the commission is becoming an unsafe place to work”.

WHEN Baroness Falkner wrote in The Daily Telegraph earlier this year that the transgender debate was “toxic”, little did she know it would land directly on her doorstep – and threaten to tear her watchdog apart.

The 68-year-old has made it her mission to attempt to find consensus in the vicious clash between women, samesex attracted people and the transgender community since she took charge of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2020, but has quickly been forced to fight fires internally instead. Senior leaders at the taxpayer-funded body say that they were left “blindsided” when a dossier, titled “Governance Concerns” from an unknown number of complainants, began circulating in February.

It contained dozens of generic allegations of “bullying”, “harassment” and “discrimination” and claimed that “unacceptable behaviour from the chairman is becoming normalised”, without providing many examples.

But the woman at the centre of it all was not informed of the allegations until three months later, in May, it is understood.

The result has split the equality regulator into two factions. The 12 external members of its decision-making board, many of them senior lawyers, have rallied behind Lady Falkner, but a vocal number of the executives and officials in the EHRC’S staff branch are said to be “resolute” in their attempt to oust her.

One specific case that is cited by the complainants is Lady Falkner describing Emma Laslett, a trans quiz contestant who sparked a row on BBC Radio 4, as a “bloke in lipstick” which prompted Marcial Boo, the EHRC’S chief executive, to allegedly “rebuke” her in front of 21 other board members, though this was dismissed as “pretty trivial” by a source who said she was in fact highlighting the abuse of trans people.

Another passage says: “There is a culture of bullying/manipulation within the Board. We believe the chairwoman is manipulating discussions to get specific outcomes.”

The complaints coincide with Lady Falkner’s most recent intervention in the trans debate, lengthy discussions with board members, to recommend that the Government consider protecting “biological sex” rather than just “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act to “bring legal clarity” to areas such as sports, which Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, will now take forward. This has infuriated transgender activists.

While Lady Falkner cannot speak herself during the investigation – itself running more than three times longer than the predicted 20 days – numerous allies of her told The Telegraph she is preparing a “robust” defence.

“It’s an incredible strain, it’s very difficult for her. It’s all nonsense and it’s all ideological, but she is forthright,” one senior EHRC source said.

“There is a lot of internal challenge from the executive towards the board’s position on sex and gender – it’s a small number of vocal people – and the civil servants are not necessarily being given the appropriate messaging when they join that they’re there to implement the decisions of the board.”

A second EHRC source said there were “overlaps” with the investigations into the Cabinet ministers Dominic Raab, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel in recent years, as “young, liberal civil servants often with different political world views are used to being treated with kid gloves”. The source said that Lady Falkner “feels like it’s her against the world – she’s felt hung out to dry but is pretty determined to fight this”.

“It has escalated into a political chess game of vexatious complaints,” the source said. “A lot of these complaints emerged during that argument taking place – while the organisation is moving away from being a voice for activists, towards being a proper, grown up, professional regulator holding the ring between conflicting rights.” A third ally of Lady Falkner said: “You can draw your own conclusions from the fact she wasn’t suspended. She has been doing the day job throughout all of this.”

Another EHRC source said they feared for the future of the regulator now. “The process is now so prejudiced that this has destroyed the chance for a fair investigation,” they said.

Last night, Channel 4 News claimed it had spoken to 20 current and former staff members with complaints about the EHRC’S direction, including allegations that they were “on calls where staff were crying”, that they feel they “are effectively puppets on strings... to deliver a Tory agenda”.

But insiders said it was “hardly a surprise” that 20 staff in an organisation with 240 staff were disgruntled and pointed out that no formal complaints had been filed, but rather senior executives had “blindsided” others by escalating the issues to a Kc-led probe rather than an internal inquiry.

The EHRC has been embroiled in a series of transgender rows since Lady Falkner took over, including over its official advice in April last year that stated that trans women can lawfully be excluded from female-only spaces.

Ian Acheson, who was the chief operating officer of the EHRC from 2012 to 2015, said: “I am saddened but not surprised that Baroness Falkner finds herself in this position because there will still be significant numbers of staff within the organisation who remain ideologically opposed to the government of the day.”

Marcial Boo, the EHRC’S chief executive, said in a statement: “Our staff operate with neutrality and professionalism. Some legal issues on which we advise, particularly relating to sex and gender, can be very complex.”