LGBT rainbow lanyards won’t be banned in Whitehall despite common sense minister’s announcement
A Whitehall-wide ban on rainbow lanyards would require the agreement of all relevant secretaries of state - Alamy Stock Photo
Rainbow lanyards will not be banned in Whitehall, it emerged on Tuesday, despite an announcement by the common sense minister just 24 hours earlier.
Esther McVey warned civil servants not to express political views “by the back door” through rainbow-coloured lanyards that are worn to demonstrate support for LGBT rights.
But The Telegraph understands Cabinet Office guidance set to be published later on Tuesday includes no specific reference to lanyards.
In a speech for the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, Ms McVey had said: “The lanyards worn to carry security passes shouldn’t be a random pick and mix, they should be a standard design reflecting that we are all members of the Government.”
She urged mandarins to “leave your political views at the building entrance” and added: “Trying to introduce them by the back door, via lanyards, should not happen.”
Ms McVey in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies said security pass lanyards should be a standard design - Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
However, Cabinet Office sources insisted the guidance would instead refer to the importance of Civil Service impartiality and include a broader warning about the use of political symbols.
They added there was a difference between Ms McVey announcing something she wanted to see happen and it becoming policy.
A Whitehall-wide ban on rainbow lanyards would require the agreement of all relevant secretaries of state, which Ms McVey is understood not to have sought.
The frontbencher, who joined Rishi Sunak’s cabinet in November in an olive branch to the Tory Right, said the Cabinet Office would provide civil servants with a standard-issue design and permanent secretaries expected they would comply.
It came as Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, appeared to distance himself from Ms McVey’s comments and suggested he did not mind rainbow lanyards being worn.
Asked about her comments by Times Radio, Mr Shapps said: “Personally, I don’t mind people expressing their views on these things. What lanyard somebody wears doesn’t particularly concern me.
“But I do think, and this is where I think Esther McVey has a point, that what we want is our civil servants to be getting on with the main job. And the main job is to serve the department they work for, in my case, defence, but across Whitehall. That is the main concern.
“I think she was getting at the idea that that should be the focus for civil servants.”
Rainbow-coloured lanyards are worn to demonstrate support for LGBT rights - Thomas Faull/iStockphoto
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Ms McVey was making the point that civil servants “should be seen and indeed should act in an impartial way”.
The spokesman pointed to similar guidance issued by the Scottish Parliament in March which banned staff from wearing rainbow lanyards and badges over concerns they could be accused of political bias.
The Telegraph revealed last week the guidance will ban Civil Service diversity jobs in a radical overhaul of the system aimed at ending its “back door politicisation”.
Mandarins will be ordered not to hire any new staff dedicated to boosting diversity, equality and inclusion and there will no longer be any jobs in Whitehall that are devoted solely to diversity.
Ms McVey was contacted for further comment.
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