RAF boss says he is ready to test ‘the limit of the law’ to improve diversity in the force, leaked transcript reveals

Published

2 years ago

April 6, 2023

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The head of the Royal Air Force signalled he was ready to “bend” his service out of shape and test “the limit of the law” to improve diversity, according to an informed source and the leaked transcript of an internal meeting.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston has always maintained that efforts under his leadership to increase the ratio of ethnic minority and female recruits had no impact on the RAF’s operational effectiveness and that standards were never compromised.

But a second source – a serving RAF airman – claimed: “Us ‘on the shop floor’ so to speak are struggling. We haven’t got enough people to do the jobs and are desperate to have new recruits, new people – constantly…

“It appears they put political correctness and their own arbitrary target of increasing ethnic minorities and women recruitment ahead of actually getting people through the training pipeline to us at the coal face.”

Sky News revealed last year that the head of RAF recruitment resigned in protest at what was alleged to be an “illegal order” effectively to pause the placing of white male recruits onto training courses in favour of women and ethnic minorities.

The order was never implemented but only because Group Captain Elizabeth Nicholl refused to obey it and quit.

Her resignation as head of recruitment and selection prompted an official inquiry, but its results have yet to be made public.

Questions have also been raised about how the RAF just over a year earlier fast-tracked dozens of women and ethnic minority recruits onto training courses ahead of their white male counterparts.

Appearing before MPs in February, Air Chief Marshal Wigston admitted to a general failing by his organisation after what he described as his “aspirational goal” to boost diversity “trickled down” to become an “unattainable” target for individual recruitment officers.

Now, new insight can be revealed into the internal dialogue on diversity that was taking place within the RAF during his tenure.

The informed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the RAF’s top personnel officer, Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Maria Byford, shared a direction she had received from Air Chief Marshal Wigston about the need to prioritise ethnic minorities and women over white men when it comes to recruitment. This allegedly happened a couple of months before the resignation of the head of recruitment.

“In June 2022, Chief of Air Personnel AVM Byford sent correspondence to her staff stating CAS (Chief of the Air Staff) was prepared to bend the operational inflow requirement for the RAF out of shape for the next three years to meet diversity levels of ambition,” the source said.

Sky News understands this claim is part of the evidence gathered by the non-statutory inquiry into what prompted the head of recruitment to resign.

The source said the desire to bend the RAF out of shape appeared to contrast with the air chief’s subsequent assurance to parliament’s defence select committee that “there was no compromise of entry standards.

There was no impact on the standard of recruits from any background. There was no impact on the frontline or on operational effectiveness”.

Separately, Sky News has seen the transcript of a virtual meeting the air chief held with members of the RAF’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) network via Zoom on 18 June 2020.

During the session, he made clear his ambition to improve diversity within recruitment as well as within a system of allocating honours and awards to aviators in recognition of service.

Air Chief Marshal Wigston is quoted as saying: “All white, all male lists of anything are unacceptable”, according to the document.

It carried a disclaimer that this was not a verbatim transcript, noting that it drew from notes taken by staff who were listening “and captures the key aspects from the question-and-answer session”.

At one point, the air chief and the RAF’s then senior non-commissioned officer, Warrant Officer Jake Alpert, who also participated, were asked whether the service planned to use positive action to ensure there is fairer representation of ethnic minorities.

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Positive action is a legal tool to help employers increase diversity by prioritising a minority candidate over, for example, their white, male counterpart if they are equally qualified.

The two RAF leaders said they believed in positive action.

Air Chief Marshal Wigston was quoted as saying he was impatient for speedy improvements in the RAF’s ethnic minority figures, noting that the ratio stood at just 6% of all recruits in 2019 and he wanted it to reach 20% by 2030.

He said if changes around recruitment and other areas were not happening fast enough towards the end of his time as chief “then I’m going to take it as far as I can in the law – right up to the point of quotas and push positive action to the limit of the law…

“We are already taking positive action and I don’t accept honours and awards that aren’t representative of our population”.

Air Chief Marshal Wigston is due to retire from the RAF in June after almost four years in the post.

Sky News asked Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, about the recruitment controversy in an interview last Thursday.

He said he would seek to make the findings of the inquiry public once they were finalised and said that anyone found to have been at fault would be held to account.

“Ultimately what people need to understand is that no one was prevented from joining the RAF as a result of these conditions,” Mr Wallace said.

“Fundamentally what the air force was trying to do was to make sure there were more women being recruited into the air force. There was no lowering of the standards.

“There was no gerrymandering or fixing but ultimately what this inquiry has been looking at is the process of the leadership and its relationship between those in charge at the time and whether they were listened to when they felt there was something going awry.”

An RAF spokesperson said: “The RAF is constantly reviewing its recruiting practices in order to improve the diversity of its workforce.

“During the period in question our selection standards did not drop and there was no impact on the operational effectiveness of the RAF, however, in hindsight, we accept that despite the best of intentions, that some mistakes were made.

“The RAF is now confident that our approach is correct.”

The RAF also pushed back on the suggestion from the anonymous serving RAF airman about a shortage of recruits, saying figures for the past year to March – which have yet to be released – will show the service hit well over 90% of its recruitment targets.

This outperformed the rest of the armed forces.

UK

Four charged after £7m of damage caused to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

Published

7 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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Four charged after £7m of damage caused to aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

Four people have been charged after £7m of damage was caused to two Voyager aircraft at RAF Brize Norton.

The investigation into the incident early on Friday 20 June was led by counter-terror police.

They have been charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK – and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.

The four charged have been identified as:

• Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, of no fixed abode

• Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 35, from London

• Jony Cink, 24, of no fixed abode

• Lewie Chiaramello, 22, from London

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later today.

A 41-year-old woman arrested last week on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released on bail until 19 September.

Meanwhile, a 23-year-old man detained on Saturday was released without charge.

Last month’s incident at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire was claimed by the activist group Palestine Action.

Yesterday, MPs voted to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation.

The legislation passed with 385 MPs voting in favour, while 26 were against.

UK

No 10 backs Chancellor Rachel Reeves and says she ‘is going nowhere’ after tearful appearance in Commons

Published

15 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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No 10 backs Chancellor Rachel Reeves and says she 'is going nowhere' after tearful appearance in Commons

Rachel Reeves has not offered her resignation and is “going nowhere”, Downing Street has said, following her tearful appearance in the House of Commons.

A Number 10 spokesperson said the chancellor had the “full backing” of Sir Keir Starmer, despite Ms Reeves looking visibly upset during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Politics latest: ‘A moment of intense peril’ for PM

A spokesperson for the chancellor later clarified that Ms Reeves had been affected by a “personal matter” and would be working out of Downing Street this afternoon.

Politics latest: Reeves looks visibly upset in Commons

UK government bond prices fell by the most since October 2022, and the pound tumbled after Ms Reeves’s Commons appearance, while the yield on the 10-year government bond, or gilt, rose as much as 22 basis points at one point to around 4.68%.

Downing Street’s insistence came despite Sir Keir refusing to guarantee that Ms Reeves would stay as chancellor until the next election following the fallout from the government’s recent welfare U-turn.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded the chancellor the “human shield” for the prime minister’s “incompetence” just hours after he was forced to perform a humiliating U-turn over his controversial welfare bill.

Emotional Reeves a painful watch – and reminder of tough decisions ahead

It is hard to think of a PMQs like it – it was a painful watch.

The prime minister battled on, his tone assured, even if his actual words were not always convincing.

But it was the chancellor next to him that attracted the most attention.

Rachel Reeves looked visibly upset.

It is hard to know for sure right now what was going on behind the scenes, the reasons – predictable or otherwise – why she appeared to be emotional, but it was noticeable and it was difficult to watch.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Badenoch said: “This man has forgotten that his welfare bill was there to plug a black hole created by the chancellor. Instead they’re creating new ones.”

Turning to the chancellor, the Tory leader added: “[She] is pointing at me – she looks absolutely miserable.

“Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence. In January, he said that she would be in post until the next election. Will she really?”

Not fully answering the question, the prime minister replied: “[Ms Badenoch] certainly won’t.

“I have to say, I’m always cheered up when she asks me questions or responds to a statement because she always makes a complete mess of it and shows just how unserious and irrelevant they are.”

Mrs Badenoch interjected: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

The prime minister’s watered-down Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill, aimed at saving £5bn, was backed by a majority of 75 in a tense vote on Tuesday evening.

A total of 49 Labour MPs voted against the bill – the largest rebellion in a prime minister’s first year in office since 47 MPs voted against Tony Blair’s Lone Parent benefit in 1997, according to Professor Phil Cowley from Queen Mary University.

After multiple concessions made due to threats of a Labour rebellion, many MPs questioned what they were voting for as the bill had been severely stripped down.

They ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to Universal Credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Ms Badenoch said the climbdown was proof that Sir Keir was “too weak to get anything done”.

Ms Reeves has also borne a lot of the criticism over the handling of the vote, with some MPs believing that her strict approach to fiscal rules has meant she has approached the ballooning welfare bill from the standpoint of trying to make savings, rather than getting people into work.

Experts have now warned that the welfare U-turn, on top of reversing the cut to winter fuel, means that tax rises in the autumn are more likely – with Ms Reeves now needing to find £5bn to make up for the policy U-turns.

Asked by Ms Badenoch whether he could rule out further tax rises – something Labour promised it would not do on working people in its manifesto – Sir Keir said: “She knows that no prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the despatch box and writes budgets in the future.

“But she talks about growth, for 14 years we had stagnation, and that is what caused the problem.”

UK

Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

Published

18 hours ago

July 2, 2025

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Prosecutors consider more charges against Lucy Letby

Prosecutors are considering whether to bring further criminal charges against Lucy Letby over the deaths of babies at two hospitals where she worked

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had received “a full file of evidence from Cheshire Constabulary asking us to consider further allegations in relation to deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital”.

“We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought,” it added.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Letby, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven children and attempting to murder seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while working in the neonatal unit of the Countess of Chester Hospital and is currently serving 15 whole-life orders.

She is understood to have carried out two work placements at Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where she trained as a student, between October and December 2012, and January and February 2015.

Police said in December that Letby was interviewed in prison as part of an investigation into more baby deaths and non-fatal collapses.

A Cheshire Constabulary spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Cheshire Constabulary has submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice regarding the ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neo-natal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird.”

Detectives previously said the investigation was looking into the full period of time that Letby worked as a nurse, covering the period from 2012 to 2016 and including a review of 4,000 admissions of babies.

Letby’s lawyer Mark McDonald said: “The evidence of the innocence of Lucy Letby is overwhelming,” adding: “We will cross every bridge when we get to it but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution’s unfounded allegations.”

On Tuesday, it was confirmed that three managers at the Countess of Chester hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter in a separate investigation.

Police said the suspects, who occupied senior positions at the hospital between 2015 and 2016, have all been bailed pending further inquiries.

There is also an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the hospital, which began in October 2023.

A public inquiry has also been examining the hospital’s response to concerns raised about Letby before her arrest.

In May, it was announced the inquiry’s final report into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes will now be published early next year.

Earlier this year, Letby’s lawyers called for the suspension of the inquiry, claiming there was “overwhelming and compelling evidence” that her convictions were unsafe.

In February, an international panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists told reporters that poor medical care and natural causes were the reasons for the collapses and deaths.

Their evidence has been passed to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which investigates potential miscarriages of justice, and Letby’s legal team hopes her case will be referred back to the Court of Appeal.