Britain’s intelligence services have launched a summer internship programme – but white British students are banned from applying.
MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are offering students the opportunity of a paid internship next summer, promising that the opportunity represents the “first steps towards an exciting full-time career”. It says that summer interns will not “just be sitting on the sidelines – this is your opportunity to get unique access to our operations, gain experience, and make key contributions to real projects”. The advert goes on to explain that the 10-11 week “intelligence internship” is only open to students from a “Black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority” as well as those from a “socially or economically disadvantaged” background.
But any white British students from socially deprived families would not be considered for internships which could lead to a career as a spy.
The advert explains that they are “confining the applications for this internship to those within this demographic due to a current underrepresentation in our workforce”. The advert states the internship is open to applications from “white other” groups such as Romany Gypsy, Scottish or Irish Travellers.
The advert that has caused some criticism as it says only those from a ‘black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority’ can apply for the summer internship
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called the internship programme “racist” and called for it to be axed. “I understand the need to encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities,” he said. “But this is an overtly racist policy and it should be immediately discontinued. It implies it is impossible for any white person to be deprived or deserving of assistance.”
One former senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer said he believed the decision not to allow poor white students to apply is “blatant discrimination”. Tim Davies, a former Squadron Leader, said: “Opportunities are being denied to white children, that’s just a fact, they cannot apply just because they are white.” He said that the RAF had made a similar mistake when pursuing a recruitment policy which led to accusations that it had discriminated against white men in its effort to meet “aspirational diversity targets”. The Ministry of Defence subsequently admitted that “despite the best of intentions, some mistakes were made” in its approach, after reports of a recruitment drive which appeared to favour women and ethnic minority candidates. The inquiry followed the resignation of the RAF’s head of recruitment after she reportedly refused an order to hire more diverse candidates because she believed it was “unlawful”.
It says that to be eligible to apply for internships, the highest earner in the student’s household when they were aged 14 had to be either unemployed and seeking work, or employed but only in certain technical or manual occupations. Eligible occupations include a postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, sales assistant, lorry or taxi driver, cleaner, porter, packer, labourer, waiter, motor mechanic, printer, tool maker, electrician, gardener or train driver.
According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), employers are allowed to take “positive action” by encouraging certain groups to apply for jobs to “address disadvantage or underrepresentation”. They add positive action is lawful if the action taken is “proportionate” to address the issue. “If an employer wants to take positive action in this way, the advert should clearly state the employer is seeking applications from everyone but wishes to encourage applications from people with a particular protected characteristic on the basis that they are underrepresented or face disadvantage,” the EHRC says.
A spokesperson for GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 said: “The summer intelligence internship is a lawful measure used by the intelligence agencies to encourage people from under-represented groups to consider careers with our organisations. Participants in the internship do not receive an offer of permanent employment at the end of it. Anyone who has participated in the internship and who wishes to apply for a permanent position can do so. They will compete against all other candidates in external recruitment processes.”
Link/Archive
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Here's a link to an older archive of the MI5 internship page from four years ago and, while I can't archive, today:
It now very clearly excludes White British applicants. The spokesperson appears to think that because the internship doesn't lead to permanent employment, this is legal. If the internship was unpaid, it may have been legal, but unpaid internships legally are required to involve zero work whatsoever (akin to "work experience" for teenagers where they just follow some people around the office and watch them). Paid internships generally are legally indistinguishable from regular employment offers, and so this is treated the same as racially discriminating for any fixed-term job. They appear to be very stupid for thinking that they'd found some get-out in this way and are probably going to get sued.
It's worth noting that a lot of national security roles are classed as "reserved occupations" where it's fully legal to engage on racial discrimination on the basis of nationality, i.e. only British citizens are allowed to work on them. That might be where they got confused, just in the wrong direction.
MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are offering students the opportunity of a paid internship next summer, promising that the opportunity represents the “first steps towards an exciting full-time career”. It says that summer interns will not “just be sitting on the sidelines – this is your opportunity to get unique access to our operations, gain experience, and make key contributions to real projects”. The advert goes on to explain that the 10-11 week “intelligence internship” is only open to students from a “Black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority” as well as those from a “socially or economically disadvantaged” background.
But any white British students from socially deprived families would not be considered for internships which could lead to a career as a spy.
The advert explains that they are “confining the applications for this internship to those within this demographic due to a current underrepresentation in our workforce”. The advert states the internship is open to applications from “white other” groups such as Romany Gypsy, Scottish or Irish Travellers.
The advert that has caused some criticism as it says only those from a ‘black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority’ can apply for the summer internship
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called the internship programme “racist” and called for it to be axed. “I understand the need to encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds, including underrepresented minorities,” he said. “But this is an overtly racist policy and it should be immediately discontinued. It implies it is impossible for any white person to be deprived or deserving of assistance.”
One former senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer said he believed the decision not to allow poor white students to apply is “blatant discrimination”. Tim Davies, a former Squadron Leader, said: “Opportunities are being denied to white children, that’s just a fact, they cannot apply just because they are white.” He said that the RAF had made a similar mistake when pursuing a recruitment policy which led to accusations that it had discriminated against white men in its effort to meet “aspirational diversity targets”. The Ministry of Defence subsequently admitted that “despite the best of intentions, some mistakes were made” in its approach, after reports of a recruitment drive which appeared to favour women and ethnic minority candidates. The inquiry followed the resignation of the RAF’s head of recruitment after she reportedly refused an order to hire more diverse candidates because she believed it was “unlawful”.
Action must be ‘proportionate’ to address issue
The advert for summer interns at MI5, MI6 and GCHQ says that as well as being from a black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority background, students need to also be from a deprived family.It says that to be eligible to apply for internships, the highest earner in the student’s household when they were aged 14 had to be either unemployed and seeking work, or employed but only in certain technical or manual occupations. Eligible occupations include a postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, sales assistant, lorry or taxi driver, cleaner, porter, packer, labourer, waiter, motor mechanic, printer, tool maker, electrician, gardener or train driver.
According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), employers are allowed to take “positive action” by encouraging certain groups to apply for jobs to “address disadvantage or underrepresentation”. They add positive action is lawful if the action taken is “proportionate” to address the issue. “If an employer wants to take positive action in this way, the advert should clearly state the employer is seeking applications from everyone but wishes to encourage applications from people with a particular protected characteristic on the basis that they are underrepresented or face disadvantage,” the EHRC says.
A spokesperson for GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 said: “The summer intelligence internship is a lawful measure used by the intelligence agencies to encourage people from under-represented groups to consider careers with our organisations. Participants in the internship do not receive an offer of permanent employment at the end of it. Anyone who has participated in the internship and who wishes to apply for a permanent position can do so. They will compete against all other candidates in external recruitment processes.”
Link/Archive
-----
Here's a link to an older archive of the MI5 internship page from four years ago and, while I can't archive, today:
It now very clearly excludes White British applicants. The spokesperson appears to think that because the internship doesn't lead to permanent employment, this is legal. If the internship was unpaid, it may have been legal, but unpaid internships legally are required to involve zero work whatsoever (akin to "work experience" for teenagers where they just follow some people around the office and watch them). Paid internships generally are legally indistinguishable from regular employment offers, and so this is treated the same as racially discriminating for any fixed-term job. They appear to be very stupid for thinking that they'd found some get-out in this way and are probably going to get sued.
It's worth noting that a lot of national security roles are classed as "reserved occupations" where it's fully legal to engage on racial discrimination on the basis of nationality, i.e. only British citizens are allowed to work on them. That might be where they got confused, just in the wrong direction.
