RAF top brass are pandering to diversity agenda amid claims they have paused recruitment of white men, former military officer says

• There is an ‘effective pause’ on hiring white men into the RAF, sources claim
• It is understand the RAF group captain for recruitment has resigned in past days
• ‘This is an example of pandering to political correctness,’ said Col Richard Kemp

A top former military officer last night said he feared RAF commanders were ‘pandering to political correctness’ amid claims the Air Force has effectively paused its recruitment of white men.

Defence sources alleged there had been an ‘effective pause’ on the hiring of white men to meet ‘impossible’ diversity quotas for women and people from minority ethnic groups, Sky News reported.

The RAF’s group captain for recruitment and selection, whose identity has not been revealed, is understood to have resigned in recent days, but has not exited the force entirely.

‘This idea of diversity now dominates the thinking of senior leaders in all of the Armed Forces,’ said Colonel Richard Kemp (pictured), a former commander in Afghanistan

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander in Afghanistan, said: ‘This idea of diversity now dominates the thinking of senior leaders in all of the Armed Forces.

‘They have become seized by the need for political correctness over the need for combat effectiveness and that could be damaging to our national defences.

‘This is an example of pandering to political correctness, the diverse make-up of the Army is important but it’s definitely not the most important.’

Colonel Kemp, a senior associate fellow at military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, warned: ‘If it becomes widely known and believed that white men will get in less easily that will have an effect on who volunteers.’

Colonel Kemp, a senior associate fellow at military think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, warned: ‘If it becomes widely known and believed that white men will get in less easily that will have an effect on who volunteers’

Conservative MP and member of the Commons defence committee Richard Drax

Conservative MP and member of the Commons defence committee Richard Drax – also a former Army officer – said that while he supported more women and ethnic minorities joining the Armed Forces, he was ‘nervous of any discrimination’.

He said: ‘Although I have been assured there have been no lowering of standards, I suspect that the RAF is manipulating the quota figure. There is a surplus of people trying to join the force therefore they are without doubt discriminating.

An RAF spokesman said: ‘There is no new policy with regards to meeting in-year recruitment requirements.’

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