UK Attorney General Vows to Scrap Diversity Training and ‘Woke Witch Trials’

Suella Braverman, UK attorney general, speaks at the launch of the Conservative Way Forwar
Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Attorney General Suella Braverman has ordered officials under her watch to “scrap” diversity training sessions in her department and has vowed to take on the “woke witch trials” going on in Britain.

Suella Braverman, who is fresh off a failed campaign to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister, said that she has requested a full briefing on any diversity training programmes going on at the Government Legal Department, which as Attorney General, she currently oversees.

“I was horrified to discover that hundreds of government lawyers spent nearly 2,000 hours of their taxpayer-funded time last year attending lectures on ‘micro-incivilities’, different ‘lived experiences’ and ‘how to be a straight ally’, courtesy of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity Stonewall,” Braverman wrote in the Daily Mail.

The Conservative MP said that she would “encourage other ministers” to take up the cause and root out the divisive practices entirely from the government, however, she noted that it is of particular importance to be removed from areas concerning law, such as in her department.

“This kind of thinking is harmful in other departments, but in legal cases it’s downright dangerous. It does nothing to create solidarity and encourage support but rather keeps emphasising difference, creates a sense of ‘otherness’ and pits different groups against each other,” she wrote.

In addition to trying to stamp out diversity training in her department, Braverman said that she would be looking to protect people from the “woke witch trials,” such as in the case of Maya Forstater, who lost her job for merely stating that people cannot change their biological sex.

Likening the leftist mob mentality to a new religion, in which adherents “don the outfit of the inquisitor and never tire of rooting out unbelievers” and others “nod along and recite the creed because they are too scared to dissent,” Braverman said that the mentality is a holdover from the left-wing Blair administration that instituted restrictions surrounding speech, which despite over a decade in power, the Conservatives have yet to dismantle.

While it remains to be seen how long Braverman will continue to serve as Attorney General, she made waves by backing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over fellow staunch conservative and stridently anti-woke MP Kemi Badenoch. With Truss currently miles ahead of her opponent, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Braverman will likely see her endorsement of Truss rewarded with the chance to either stay on in her position or with another role in the cabinet.

In a further endorsement of Truss on Thursday, the AG told GB News that the prime minister hopeful has been against woke ideology “long before it was fashionable, she [Liz Truss] has taken a strong line on freedom of speech, freedom of thought and being against cancel culture.”.

The foreign secretary has committed to targeting similar diversity training programmes in police forces at taxpayer expense, and said that she would “robustly defend free speech” by demanding police follow the new College of Policing guidelines which told officers to stop treating political debates on social media as hate incidents.

“It’s time for the police to get back to basics and spend their time investigating real crimes, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings. People can trust me to deliver and these league tables will help hold the police to account — making our streets safer and our country more prosperous,” she said.

However, Truss has not committed to repealing existing hate speech legislation, such as the Communications Act of 2003, which criminalises posts online which can be deemed as “grossly offensive”.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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