Kemi Badenoch calls in barrister to examine equalities watchdog ‘witch hunt’

[JanesLittleGirl]

hunt’
KC will look at way in which claims against Baroness Falkner, who chairs Equality and Human Rights Commission, have been dealt with.

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/29/kemi-badenoch-calls-in-kc-to-examine-ehrc-witch-hunt/

As always, I apologise for not being able to provide a link that gets around the paywall.

Sorry, bad cut and paste. Should have read:

KC will look at way in which claims against Baroness Falkner, who chairs Equality and Human Rights Commission, have been dealt with.

AS said on another thread always worth going to the web site https://archive.ph and pasteing in the original web link to see if any article has been archived.

This one has.

No sure that the article is saying anything new.

Or rather that Kemi Badenoch seems to have got so frustrated, at the attempts to influence the inquiry by EHRC staff leaking to C4 news, that now she is going to bet a barrister to investigate the investigation.

Some part of me wonders if this isn't what staff want. To have the organisation so tied up in inquiries that it cant do its own work. Which staff are no doubt worried will now not be soley under the influenced of their TRA ideology.

Mrs Badenoch, the Business Secretary and equalities minister, has asked a senior barrister to examine the way in which <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/VsIbv/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/ehrc-restarts-investigation-into-chair-baroness-falkner/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">claims against Baroness Falkner, who chairs the Equality and Human Rights Commission, have been dealt with.

The move comes after a handful of board members wrote to Mrs Badenoch, saying they had lost confidence in decisions being taken by Lady Falkner’s deputies, who have been overseeing an investigation into the peer.

Last week, The Telegraph revealed that the inquiry into Lady Falkner <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/VsIbv/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/22/nquiry-equalities-chief-paused-kemi-badenoch-intervenes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">had been suspended for a second time following an intervention by the Business Secretary.

She is understood to have expressed concern that the decision to resume the inquiry was reported by Channel 4 after a dossier of claims of “bullying”, “harassment” and “discrimination”, drawn up by EHRC civil servants, was handed to the broadcaster <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/VsIbv/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/26/ehrc-suspends-investigation-baroness-falkner/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">in May.

Mrs Badenoch’s intervention came after a majority of remaining board members signed a letter to the Government saying that they intended to call for Alasdair Henderson and Eryl Besse to stand aside from their roles as Lady Falkner’s deputies.

The letter was in response to the decision to resume the inquiry, despite no evidence being presented to board members at the time that Mr Henderson, a barrister, and Ms Besse, a solicitor, had taken legal advice over whether hostile leaks of the allegations against Lady Falkner had prejudiced the investigation.

The board members told Mrs Badenoch they “no longer have confidence” in the decisions being taken by Mr Henderson and Ms Besse.

Mrs Badenoch is understood to have asked a KC to examine the handling of the inquiry into Lady Falkner before writing to the commission about the resumption of the investigation.

(I remember at the time that C4 was so obviously overstating what was going on, and just doing a one sided report that I started a thread! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4852244-c4-news-gunning-for-lady-faulkner-again)

Comment by KB in today's Sunday Times, not sure if this has been shared yet:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/73977f32-2e43-11ee-af56-249c74e4b179?shareToken=5e54a584d28c909f727e7a67d7125fef

That woman is a hero. It's an uphill battle but she's on our side

”It is perfectly reasonable for banks to be arbiters of legality in financial transactions; however, they cannot become arbiters of morality, withdrawing essential services from people they think are problematic.”

Perfectly expressed. I tried to say how much this worries me in another thread last week, but this paragraph is very clear.

Excellent article, thank you for sharing.

We have a plan that starts from first principles; in stark contrast to the knee-jerk reactions of the opposition political parties, whose views change depending on the politics of the victim.

That's the first thing I've seen so far that's made me think yes, I'd walk into a ballot box with a positive want to vote for that. I definitely want to live in a country that operates from one law, based on sound principles, that operates equally for all regardless of whether or not they are a transactivist or a special kind of person.

As always Kemi cuts through with the good stuff - she’s clear and correct

Jeez, TRAs are utterly desperate to control the EHRC. The can see the weaponisation of the equality act slipping through their fingers.

Kemi's so on it.

Does it say which KC? Karon M would be a good choice...

Good to hear some of the board members are actually doing their job properly -time to replace those who didnt write as well as the deputies.

Is Allison Bailey a KC?

Hmm RMW will be furious

I really do wonder how this is going to end, because to undo this political capture, when the believers in this extremist faith based ideology have been trained that the law is wrong, that they know better, that anyone who disagrees with them is damned a bigot and to be shunned/destroyed -

I honestly wonder if it won't have to eventually be that anyone trained in this ideology is going to have to be regarded as compromised, particularly in the civil service and establishment taxpayer services. This has to be undone and impartiality restored as a value. It's not an exaggeration at this point to say that Prevent may be the best source of advice.

No, and she's left the bar.