‘Common sense’ minister bans rainbow lanyards in civil service

Civil servants will be banned from wearing rainbow lanyards and universities must prioritise domestic students, a Cabinet Office minister has said as part of a government “common sense fightback”.

Esther McVey, a minister without portfolio, is cracking down on staff networks for minority groups, accusing them of sowing divisions and bringing politics to Whitehall “by the back door”.

Describing Rishi Sunak as an “intellectual giant”, McVey praised the prime minister for standing up to “religious-type zealotry” on net zero as she criticised Boris Johnson and Theresa May for setting climate deadlines driven by ideology.

McVey was brought into the cabinet last November in a move widely seen as a sop to the Tory right after Suella Braverman was sacked as home secretary. In her first speech in the role, she embraced the title of “minister for common sense”, which she said had been “gifted with a rather large slice of sneer from the pundits on the left”.

“Aristotle thought common sense helped us form coherent thoughts and make rational decisions. It’s as important [as] a sense of sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell,” she said. “And yet, as Voltaire reportedly noted, there is nothing common about common sense.”

Arguing against progressive theories that “purport knowledge is based on power structures and social constructs, not evidence and reason”, McVey claimed that “left-wing politically correct woke warriors had made a concerted effort to get themselves into positions of influence within the public sector” instead of standing for election.

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To resist such trends, McVey said she wanted to “stop the inappropriate backdoor politicisation of the civil service”, which she argued distracted from delivery of public services.

Consultancy contracts for equality, diversity and inclusion services will be banned and ministers will take control of internal diversity work to ensure that civil servants are not hired to do such roles. “People want their public servants to be getting on with the job of making their lives better, not engaging in endless internal discussions about ideology,” she said.

Staff networks will also be curtailed, with McVey citing the Civil Service Muslim Network, which was suspended after officials discussed how to change government policy on Gaza during its meetings. “Many may have started with good intentions but some have moved to a place of political and religious activism and such networks have no place in the civil service and will be closed down,” she said.

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Lanyards to hold security passes worn by civil servants will now have to carry a standard departmental design rather than a “random pick and mix” of political statements, she said. “Working in the civil service is all about leaving your political views at the building entrance. Trying to introduce them by the back door via lanyards should not happen.”

Asked what was wrong with an LGBT lanyard, McVey said: “You don’t need political activism in a visible way … you’re putting it on to make a statement, and what we’re saying is actually, your political beliefs remain at the front door and when you come in, you’re part of a happy team.”

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McVey also said that progressive ideologues had “infiltrated our universities and schools and our public services”, as she took a swipe at teachers pushing progressive gender theories. “Too many seem to have to force their opinions on all their students in a wholly inappropriate and unprofessional way,” she said.

The Times has previously reported that universities are cutting jobs as restrictions on the ability of foreign students to bring dependants has led to a drop in numbers coming from overseas. McVey argued that this was a sign of Sunak’s success in reducing immigration.

“Universities are now complaining that their finances are being stretched due to the severity of the reductions in international students they are seeing — I have no sympathy. For too long these universities have been selling immigration to international students rather than education,” she said.

Asked why the government wanted to reduce a key export revenue, she said that universities “should be selling academia, not an immigration policy”, saying that higher education had become “more about immigration than education”.

Universities “shouldn’t be a scheme to expand and pay for themselves”, she said. “You have to look at what really is required in this country. And here it seems that their business model has got out of balance.”

While Sunak has faced sustained criticism from the right, McVey said he was “the first political leader to stand up to the religious-type zealotry which has consumed politicians” on net zero. In a veiled criticism of Johnson, who set a 2030 deadline for a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars — since delayed by Sunak — McVey said that “people have got caught up in the ideology and they’ve been setting timelines that would just seem to be politically pulled out from a figure in the air”.