Mail Online

EQUALITY CHIEF ‘WITCH HUNT’ PROBE PUT ON ICE

After Mail exposed vendetta against human rights boss whose only crime is to stand up for women against aggressive trans lobby...

By Inderdeep Bains Deputy Chief Reporter

AN INVESTIGATION into the equalities watchdog was suspended last night amid fears of a ‘witch hunt’.

The Mail had exposed an apparent plot by staff to oust Kishwer Falkner over her stance on trans issues by accusing her of discrimination, bullying and transphobia.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a probe into the claims in February but announced last night that it had now been paused. It said this was to ‘ensure integrity’ and make the process ‘fair to all parties concerned’.

Senior commission employees were alleged to have targeted Baroness Falkner after she backed legal reforms guarding the rights of biological women in sport and single-sex spaces. Their claims were leaked to Channel 4 News in what critics say was an attempt to defame her and discredit her fellow board members.

The Mail’s revelations triggered a major backlash in which parliamentarians, former

commission staff and women’s rights groups rallied around the baroness.

‘We are delighted the investigation into Baroness Falkner has been suspended,’ said heather Binning of the Women’s Rights Network.

‘It had all the hallmarks of an ideologically driven witch hunt. The baroness was attacked because she said what so many of us believe — that sex means biological sex, and not a gender identity built on ridiculous stereotypes.’

helen Joyce of the Sex Matters campaign group said: ‘What brought down the wrath of the trans lobby on Kishwer Falkner’s head was her support for Sex Matters’ proposal to clarify that “sex” in the equality Act really means sex: male or female. This is essential to ensure the law protects women against sex discrimination. We are delighted this politically motivated, vexatious investigation has been suspended.’

More than 50 peers also signed a scathing letter this week in which they gave the baroness their full backing and said she had been ‘irresponsibly attacked’.

Making a formal complaint to ofcom, the peers said the Channel 4 report was ‘complicit’ in the coup and said it was ‘promulgating the views’ of commission staff who were ‘seeking to undermine the chair.’

The ehRC is believed to have decided to suspend the investigation within hours of the damning letter being issued on Thursday but did not announce the move until yesterday.

In a statement it said: ‘This investigation has been paused. This is while we seek legal advice on the impact of leaked confidential information. We must ensure its integrity and that it is fair to all parties concerned.’

A friend close to the baroness last night said: ‘She respects the decision and does not know what will come next. But she remains ready to strongly rebut any allegations and she is confident she will be exonerated.’

Several insiders had raised concerns that the investigation had been ‘prejudiced’ by leaks to Left-leaning journalists making it impossible for the baroness to get a fair hearing.

one source said: ‘The complaints are vexatious and the staff know they will not hold up in an inquiry hence the leaks to a sympathetic outlet. But it has backfired badly.’

The ehRC has refused to confirm whether a leak inquiry would be held to examine the possibility that public servants had revealed confidential data. A source said: ‘everyone is watching to see what the board does next and everyone is hoping they will get a grip on the situation. We imagine they will now consider how and if they investigate the leaks and what the ramifications are for the suspended investigation and any future investigations.’

The ehRC had appointed employment barrister gavin Mansfield KC to conduct the probe after receiving a dossier of more than 40 complaints of bullying, harassment and transphobia. Launched in February, it has already cost taxpayers £100,000 and the baroness £30,000 of her own money on legal fees.

Some government sources suggested ehRC chief executive Marcial Boo should resign. The ehRC source added: ‘Serious questions are now being asked about how this came to happen and how much public money has been wasted.’ Asked about the chief executive’s future at the commission, the source replied: ‘I think it’s fair to say nothing’s off the table.’

A Whitehall source added: ‘Marcial Boo has to reflect on his position which could be seen as untenable. how can he have a functional relationship with the board having presided over this toxic mess? This is now a huge waste of money, they’ve paid taxpayer money for a process that is now not going forward.

‘The organisation will have also have find an alternative mechanism to deal with these complaints.’

Lord Shinkwin called for the investigation to be scrapped altogether claiming that the baroness was the victim of a ‘concerted character assassination’.

Sources said the pages of complaints against her were ‘endless petty perceived slights’ made by ‘politically motivated’ civil servants.

In a personal statement, Baroness Falkner said she was ‘hugely grateful to the public for the support and encouragement’ over the past week, including offers to help fund legal costs.

She added that parliament decreed in the equality Act 2010 that the ehRC board had the responsibility to take all strategic policy decisions after advice from executives.

‘We are strong, united and clear-eyed in our attempt to balance rights across the spectrum of our work, sometimes in highly contested areas of policy,’ she insisted. ‘I regret that, during that process, we have not managed to carry everyone within our organisation with us, but to decide is to choose – carefully, about what our decisions mean for those affected.’

She added: ‘I have relished public service all my life and continue to do so with vigour and determination.’

‘Impossible to get a fair hearing’

WHEN historians come to chronicle our current days they are unlikely to title it the ‘age of reason’. They might more credibly label it the ‘epoch of absurdity’.

The cherished Enlightenment values of free speech, rationality and tolerance championed by the likes of John Locke are under ferocious and unremitting attack.

Depressingly, we are living in a much darker time. A time when suppression of ideas and an Orwellian adherence to orthodoxies mandated by the high priests of wokeness are expected. A time when unproven allegations are once again enough to see a person damned.

For simply expressing an unfashionable view – on issues such as gender, race or the legacy of Britain’s empire – people are having their livelihoods destroyed and personal relationships ruined.

If the things someone says or believes, even if manifestly true, deviate in any way from the woke narratives, these hysterical so-called progressives will come for you.

Not openly and honestly, not by engaging in debate, but by anonymous whispering campaigns. Sometimes they become shrill and orchestrate campaigns to harass, intimidate and marginalise the supposed malefactor, trashing their reputation and forcing them out. This mindset is at the malignant heart of ‘cancel culture’.

No sphere of life is immune from these militants. Politics, academia, business… all have been the backdrop for witch hunts.

Every day seems to give us another incident which proves it.

Take Kathleen Stock, the philosophy professor who has become a pariah. Her crime? Arguing biological sex in human beings is real and socially important.

Until recently, this view would have been so run of the mill as to hardly merit stating. But as we report, militant trans activists are trying to ban her from addressing the prestigious Oxford Union.

Take also John Allan, one of the country’s most prominent businessmen. Last week, three anonymous allegations about his personal conduct towards female colleagues – vehemently denied – appeared in a Left-wing newspaper.

Despite the claims being unsubstantiated, Tesco asked him to stand down as chairman, fearing he’d be a ‘distraction’. Isn’t the truth they feared falling foul of social media’s kangaroo court?

Our major cultural, educational, political and corporate bodies are so in thrall to wokeness that activists can bully them into pursuing their own agendas.

But in a hopeful sign that so-called cancel culture has begun to turn, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has suspended its bullying inquiry against its chairman, Lady Falkner.

The undeniable impression is that a cadre of disgruntled staff (unnamed, of course) lodged petty complaints because she suggested amending the Equality Act to introduce explicit legal protections for biological women, making it easier to bar trans people from single-sex spaces.

Lady Falkner’s job is to protect everyone’s rights, not kowtow to the demands of the extremist trans lobby. That EHRC staff sought to intimidate her is indefensible.

Of course, allegations of misbehaviour must be treated seriously. But if people pursuing their own political or social agendas can get their opponents suspended – or worse – by making anonymous and malicious accusations, the country will be in fantastically dangerous territory.

Organisations and companies should show some spine, proportion and common sense when confronted with anonymous grievances – not just jerk their knees.

If the Tories are serious about changing the direction of Britain, they too should speak up. Until then, we will continue reversing from the glorious principles of the Enlightenment to the witch trials of the Middle Ages, at breakneck speed.

FRONT PAGE

en-gb

2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-05-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/281771338564788

dmg media (UK)