Ms Truss has vowed to wage “war” on Civil Service waste if she wins the Tory leadership contest and becomes prime minister, and one of her pledges is to reduce the number of diversity officer posts. Mr Rees-Mogg, the government efficiency minister who is a leading supporter of Ms Truss, said he backed the move as he claimed diversity officers were doing “nothing useful”. He argued that responsibility for improving diversity in Whitehall must lie with the people who actually make employment decisions. Mr Rees-Mogg told Sky News: “I think ensuring diversity in employment is the job of the people who make the employment decisions, not someone employed as a diversity officer.” He added: “I think you need to instil that in the people who make the employment decisions and the civil service commission to make sure you’re employing the best people from different backgrounds.”
Rees-Mogg accuses the Civil Service of running “nonsense” training programmes
The minister said the Civil Service was guilty of “nonsense” training programs for its staff as he referred to an initiative called “Check Yo Privilege”. He asked: “Why is the public service wasting people’s time with a course that doesn’t help people do their jobs better?” Mr Rees-Mogg was told the government might not go far in improving diversity in Whitehall by splitting the roles, but he disagreed. He said: “Yes, because I don’t think they do anything useful. I do not believe they add to the diversity of the civil service. It’s a job creation program created by wake for the wake.”
