Reform look to cut spending on diversity training

Dawn Husemann says the party believes diversity training is "fundamentally discriminatory"

The leader of Shropshire Council's opposition group, Reform UK, says the party will look to cut spending on diversity training.

Dawn Husemann said they believed that the council's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training was "fundamentally discriminatory".

She also confirmed party members would not attend the training and added: "We would be immediately looking at all of the [authority's] DEI spend."

Alex Wagner, deputy leader of the ruling party the Liberal Democrats, criticised Reform's stance. He said: "The suggestion that our financial problems are caused [or even impacted] by DEI training is obviously nonsense – it has no dedicated budget at all."

He added: "Having made the largest spending reductions in England last year, Shropshire Council is looking to do the same again this year whilst facing enormous pressures from several factors, most notably the growing demand for social care."

The council said it was unable to comment on members not going to DEI training.

The BBC has also contacted the Labour, Conservative and Green parties for comment.

Alex Wagner, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, says there is no dedicated budget for DEI training

DEI training includes how to create a work environment that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive for all. The council states on its website: "For us, equality is about using national laws and policies alongside local commitments to protect human rights and to remove unfairness and discrimination."

Ms Husemann admitted she did not know how much money DEI training was currently costing Shropshire Council.

And she added: "In the main case it's against the majority, because if you're a minority group of whatever ilk, you are being prioritised over and above the majority of the population and I cannot agree with that, it should be one rule for all of us."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage party says members will boycott DEI training

Reform stood candidates in all 74 Shropshire seats in the most recent local election, winning 16 of them.

The party's national leader Nigel Farage said members would boycott the training because "all people should be treated equally".

Husemann said she believed everyone was equal and that the DEI training undermined people.

"We should be filling potholes, we should be putting a 20mph zone outside our school in Claverley and apparently we've got no money.

"These decisions, they're about people's political priorities. My priority is making sure that the mums walking up Claverley High Street with buggies in the road because there's no pavements – that they're safe.

"Not sending people on courses on how to prioritise one group over another."

But Julian Dean, from the Green Party, said: "Reform's refusal to learn about our community is mind blowing.

"Councillors need to understand the different lives people lead and how councils can help people meet the challenges of growing old, of being disabled, of facing discrimination or harassment because of skin colour, sexuality, gender or religion.

"Councillor Husemann and her colleagues have deliberately shut their eyes and ears to the free training available to them on this."

'Not pro net-zero agenda'

Ms Husemann also said Reform UK would look to cut council funding for net-zero projects.

"When I last looked, Shropshire shares the same planet, the same atmosphere, with America, with India and with China."

She said that she cared about the environment, was anti-waste and had not been on a plane since 2010.

"It's not that we're not pro looking after the planet, we're not pro this net-zero agenda that is bankrupting individual citizens, it's destroying British industry and it's really undermining the country as a whole."

She told the BBC she did not yet know how much the council was spending on these projects.

Fossil fuels

On the plans to look at removing funding for net-zero, Dean, from the Green Party, said Reform UK's policies would "make us dependent on polluting fossil fuels from Russia, the US and the Middle East".

He added that net-zero projects achieved many things, which included keeping homes warm on clean energy and improving public transport so people would be less dependent on cars.