Dear Friend 

I am a former staff member (and most senior race adviser) at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and I am suing the watchdog, alleging race discrimination and unfair dismissal, at an employment tribunal in Manchester. 

The trial ends on 24 October 2023. It was covered by the Guardian earlier this week - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/oct/01/former-race-lead-sues-ehrc-for-race-discrimination 

See also, earlier coverage in the Guardian in September 2021 - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/19/britains-equality-watchdog-colluding-in-denial-of-institutional-racism

I was a senior associate and a race protected-characteristic lead at Britain’s equality watchdog until 2021. I was vilified, silenced and punished for “doing my job” by speaking up about race and questioning the independence of the Commission, who were colluding with government on the denial of institutional and structural racism.

In my claim I state: “I was vilified by the senior management (including HR) for speaking up on race, and ended up suffering from work-related stress. The very same race issues which were said to exist at organisations and employers we investigated existed at the respondent [EHRC]”.

I was told that even when I found “clear objective evidence of structural and institutional racism”,  “that there would never be a finding made on these terms”.

In my experience, evidence of institutional racism was similarly downplayed or ignored in reports on higher education, the Met police and the coronavirus pandemic. 

The EHRC “began to deny the existence of ‘institutional racism’ as an objective fact, and to outlaw such findings in its reports”, placing pressure on staff to do the same.

In my claim I also comment that politics was behind the decision to investigate alleged antisemitism allegations in the Labour party but not those of Islamophobia within the Conservative party, despite there being greater evidence of the latter, nor – until after the 2019 general election – whether the Home Office unlawfully discriminated against the Windrush generation.

We asked for a cross-party inquiry into racism within political parties but were ignored. “Although there was evidence of racism in the Labour party, it was found to be far more pervasive in the Home Office (but we ignored it) and was said to be far more pervasive in the Conservative party (but we ignored it),”.

The race training for EHRC staff was blocked, as were key products and reports on race

I was also subject to made-up disciplinary processes, partly because of an internal email I sent raising concerns that EHRC was being used in a government “witch-hunt” against race thinktank Runnymede Trust over the charity’s criticisms of the much-maligned Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (Cred) report. I was just “doing my job as race lead in flagging up race risks”.

I am trying to raise £40,000 to cover my legal costs for the trial and any remedy hearing. 

Please support me if you can.

Many thanks