When Esther McVey was appointed as ‘common sense minister’ in November, there were fears from some that this may not constitute a proper focus. But such sceptics will now be eating their hats, with McVey yesterday announcing large-scale lanyard reform throughout the civil service as part of a “common sense fightback”.
McVey said the allowance of non-standardised lanyards (for example rainbow-patterned ones) was allowing civil servants to introduce their political views “by the back door” and risked promoting causes at the “exclusion” of others.
“Because for every lanyard that you show, you’re therefore not saying about all the other things you do or don’t agree with. So you’re promoting one at the exclusion of other things. It is making a statement, you’re putting it on to make a statement,” McVey said.
The minister, whose role was invented by Rishi Sunak earlier this year, announced she would also crack down on “pointless job creation” and would therefore be banning civil service roles focused on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), except within human resources. “People want public servants to be getting on with the job of making their lives better, not engaging in endless internal discussions about ideology,” she said. According to McVey, there are currently around 400 employees working on EDI across the civil service, though the Cabinet Office did not confirm how many of these roles were non-HR related.
McVey also said such jobs failed to represent “value for money for the taxpayer”, a critique perhaps not unfamiliar to Ms McVey, who has reportedly claimed up to £250,000 in expenses over the last seven years to cover the rent on her London flat, despite her husband owning a home located just a mile away.
The move provoked has criticism from some groups. “Pathetic & retrograde. Being LGBT is not a ‘view’,” Labour MP Ben Bradshaw posted on X.
Meanwhile, Lucille Thirlby, assistant general secretary of the FDA union, which represents civil servants, said the minister’s speech announcing the measures failed to cite evidence supporting her claims about EDI roles and instead represented a “tick list of culture-war talking points”.
“At a time when the country is facing serious challenges, should the colour of a civil servant’s lanyard really be a ministerial priority?” Thirlby said.