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.”
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:56
RAF chief admits to failings
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.
Advertisement
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.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:09
RAF: ‘Unlawful’ hiring order
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.
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.
Anthony Joshua missed out on the chance to become a three-time heavyweight world champion after he was stopped by British rival Daniel Dubois in the fifth round.
Dubois, 27, knocked down Joshua towards the end of the opening round with an overhand right to the 34-year-old’s chin.
The IBF heavyweight champion then dropped Joshua at the end of round three and twice in the fourth.
A right hook ended the fight with a knockout for Dubois’ first defence of the title.
The fighters went toe to toe at London’s Wembley Stadium in front of a record 96,000 fans.
‘We came up short’
Minutes after retaining the IBF championship, Dubois shouted to the crowd “are you not entertained?” before saying: “I’m a gladiator, you know?
More on Anthony Joshua
Related Topics:
“I’m just a warrior to the bitter end. I’m just ready to go. I want to go to the top level of this game and reach my potential. God bless you all.”
Joshua said the loss would not stop him from rebuilding despite admitting “we came up short”.
Advertisement
“You know I’m ready to kick off in the ring, but I’m going to keep my cool, keep very professional, and give respect to my opponent,” he said.
“I’m always saying to myself I’m a fighter for life… We keep rolling the dice. I had a sharp opponent, a fast opponent and a lot of mistakes from my end, but that’s the game.”
Dubois’ victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division
Daniel Dubois will feel like he has fulfilled his destiny here at Wembley. His father has trained him to be a champion boxer since he was tiny.
He held the IBF belt, but he has gone in there tonight and defended it in spectacular fashion – he is now in every conversation going forward.
What now for AJ? Can he face rebuilding? And will he even want to?
The Wembley ring walk is notoriously long, and Dubois looked nervous – but so did Joshua, who has done this many times before in front of a full house.
Perhaps he was thinking of what was at stake – the chance to be a three-time heavyweight champion of the world.
But 27-year-old Dubois holds the belt and was keen to prove he was a worthy champion quickly.
Many wondered if Dubois would freeze on the biggest stage: Question asked and answered emphatically.
It was a crushing defeat for Joshua – most were not expecting such a one-sided victory.
Dubois will now most likely take on the winner of Fury v Usyk 2 for all the belts. But the manner of his victory has sent a message to the whole heavyweight division.
Hearn: AJ will want rematch
Promoter Eddie Hearn then said “it was the first round” where Joshua lost, “after that he was fighting on heart and desire”.
Hearn added: “When you are in there with a massive puncher this is what can happen. He never stopped trying to get up, even when he couldn’t get up.
“Daniel deserves credit, he’s a real world champion. Congratulations to him… I’m sure [Joshua will] exercise that rematch clause, it’s a given, it’s a dangerous fight because he’s growing in confidence all the time but he’ll believe he can beat him.”
British champion Dubois, who before tonight had never fought at Wembley, was elevated to the IBF title holder after Oleksandr Usyk relinquished the belt.
Joshua outweighed Dubois by four pounds, despite a career-heaviest weight for his rival, ahead of the fight.
Among those watching was Tyson Fury, the former WBC heavyweight champion, who took a ringside seat.
Fury is set to fight Usyk for the other three titles in a rematch on 21 December.
Ahead of the fight, Liam Gallagher played some of Oasis’ biggest hits to the sold-out crowd.
The 52-year-old frontman walked on to a massive cheer and said “yes Wembley vibes in the air,” before launching into Rock ‘N’ Roll Star, Supersonic and Cigarettes & Alcohol.
He and Noel Gallagher will play Wembley for their first of seven reunion shows at the stadium on 25 July – 307 days away.
Other famous faces ringside were Irish MMA fighter Conor McGregor, former boxer Ricky Hatton, Spice Girl Emma Bunton and Love Island presenter Maya Jama.
The former head of royal protection says he warned the Royal Family about Mohamed al Fayed’s reputation before Princess Diana took her sons on holiday with him.
The women say he raped and sexually assaulted them while they worked at the luxury department store, prowling the shop floor and “cherry-picking” women to be brought to his executive suite.
Now, Mr Davies says people were aware of the Egyptian businessman’s reputation as far back as the 1990s, and that he raised concerns about him to the Royal Family.
“This was a man who I would be concerned [about] if a relative of mine was going on holiday with him, let alone the future king and his brother and their mother, Princess Diana,” Dai Davies told Sky News.
In July 1997, a month before she died, Princess Diana went on holiday with Fayed and his wife to their residence in St Tropez.
She took the two young princes with her – a holiday Prince Harry described as “heaven” in his 2023 memoir Spare.
“I was horrified because I was aware of some of the allegations even then that were going around,” said Mr Davies.
“I was aware that he had tried very hard to ingratiate himself with the Royal Family and obviously knowing, as I did, the reputation he was alleged [to have] then, I was concerned, and I took the opportunity to inform the Royal Family.”
Mr Davies says he was told: “Her Majesty is aware.”
“The rest is history,” he said.
Buckingham Palace told Sky News it had no comment on the allegations.
Fulham ‘deeply disturbed’ by allegations
Fulham FC, a football club that was owned by Fayed between 1997 and 2013, has saidit is “deeply troubled” by the dozens of “disturbing” sexual abuse allegations against the businessman.
The Premier League club also said it is “in the process of establishing whether anyone at the club is or has been affected” by this alleged behaviour.
However, Gaute Haugenes, who managed the club’s women’s team between 2001 and 2003, told the BBC extra precautions were taken to protect female players from Fayed.
“We were aware he liked young, blonde girls. So we just made sure that situations couldn’t occur. We protected the players.”
The legal team involved in a civil claim against Harrods for allegedly failing to provide a safe system of work for its employees said they aimed to seek justice for the victims of a “vast web of abuse”.
Lily Allen says she had her children “for all the wrong reasons,” at a “high pressure” point in her career when she felt “overwhelmed”.
The singer and actress had her two daughters, Marnie, 12 and Ethel, 11, with her ex-husband Sam Cooper when she was in her mid-20s.
By the time she became a mum, she’d already had hit singles including Smile and The Fear, released two studio albums and received a Brit Award for best British female solo artist.
Speaking about motherhood on the BBC podcast Miss Me?, which Allen hosts with her long-time friend Miquita Oliver, she said: “I think I had children for all the wrong reasons, really.
“Because I was yearning for unconditional love, which I haven’t felt in my life since I was a child.”
The now 39-year-old star added: “And also, my career was at such high speed, high pressure, and I felt like very overwhelmed by what was happening. I just didn’t get much respite you know?
“And I felt like the only way to stop people hassling me was to say, ‘It’s not about me, actually this is about this other person that’s inside me’.
When asked by Oliver if it worked, Allen says: “Yeah, they did leave me alone. I don’t think I really understood what was happening, what I got myself into.”
The daughter of actor Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen, she went on to discuss her own childhood.
Advertisement
“My mum, bless her, had children really early as well, and she really struggled. But she doesn’t really talk about the struggle. And so… She inadvertently gaslit me into thinking it was, you know, easy.
“You just sort of throw the kid over your shoulder and you get on with it.
“Her job was very static, and in one place and went to an office and mine wasn’t like that at all. It wasn’t easy. It just wasn’t easy.”
The ‘nasty scars’ caused by absent parents
Allen previously told the Radio Times podcast that while she loves her children, having them “ruined her career”.
She said her decision to prioritise them over her pop career was a decision she made so as not to inflict the “nasty scars” of being an “absent” parent onto them.
She also said the myth of having it all “really annoyed” as it simply was not true.
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Allen, whose younger brother is Game Of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020.
Away from her music career, Allen has branched out into acting over the last few years, starring in two plays in London’s West End, and winning a role in Sky drama Dreamland last year.