“Someone who lives in Lincolnshire would know that there aren’t any DEI roles going in Lincolnshire Council.”
Andrea Jenkyns and Nigel Farage have hit an early stumbling block in their pledge to axe diversity officer roles at Lincolnshire County Council. There aren’t any.
The council confirmed in a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) response that it “does not employ any Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) officers”.
To mimic Elon Musk’s cost-cutting measures, Farage and Jenkyns made scrapping DEI roles central to their local election campaign.
Speaking at a rally in Kent on Saturday, Jenkyns declared: “We are going to have a Lincolnshire Doge. We are going to ensure that we get rid of diversity officers because amazingly Lincolnshire County Council is now Reform controlled. That is a historic moment.”
Reform UK’s Andrea Jenkyns won the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral race last Thursday. Reform also took control of Lincolnshire County Council, winning 44 out of the 70 seats.
Jenkyns told The Independent that another council in the combined authority, North Lincolnshire Council, employs diversity officers, who they call “outreach officers”.
The former Tory MP said council employees have told her the council leadership pressures staff to wear rainbow lanyards.
Jenkyns also criticised Lincolnshire County Council’s diversity training, calling it “awful”. Council documents show that the council spent only £15,190 on such training between 2021 and 2023.
“Not a lot, but still can save a bit of money,” she said.
In a BBC interview over the weekend, Reform chair Zia Yusuf also claimed that DEI officers are being ‘hidden’ under different titles.
In response, a Tory source said “Someone who lives in Lincolnshire would know that there aren’t any DEI roles going in Lincolnshire Council.”
Jenkyns currently lives in Yorkshire but has said she would relocate to Lincolnshire if she won the mayoralty.
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea has urged council workers to join a union.
She said: “Unions are there to ensure no one can play fast and loose with the law. Any staff working for councils now controlled by Reform, and who aren’t yet members, should sign up so they can be protected too.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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