Council doubles down on DEI amid Labour row

Camden Council’s leader has affirmed his support for equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies, claiming they will make the borough “fairer, more creative and innovative”.

On Monday (2 June) Town Hall chief Richard Olszewski took to X (formerly Twitter) to praise the equalities practice, often referred to by its American acronym ‘DEI’.

“In Camden, we believe we will be a fairer, more creative and innovative place to work, visit and live in if we can harness different perspectives and experience,” he wrote.

“That’s why we are fully committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.”

His post linked to a series of initiatives the council had undertaken to support these policies, including its Interfaith Network and ‘Diversity in the Public Realm’ strategy.

Later on Monday, one of his backbenchers also posted about the practice, although with a different emphasis.

“If I see someone British complain about ‘DEI’ again I will throw something heavy at them. Claiming to be super duper patriotic and using an imported Americanism, go boil your head,” wrote Cllr Edmund Frondigoun (Somers Town).

While common usage considers EDI and DEI to be interchangeable, with the former serving as the UK’s version of the framework, others have argued the ordering of the three concepts suggests a higher emphasis on ‘equality’.

Also significant is that DEI has often referred to ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’.

According to the University of Oxford, equity means “ensuring everyone is treated fairly by removing barriers to resources or opportunities that some groups in society face”.

Equality, on the other hand, is the practice of “ensuring everyone has the same opportunities, and no-one is treated differently or discriminated against because of their personal characteristics”.

The local politicians’ comments this week arrived amid a factional row within Labour about the policies, which are unpopular in parts of the party’s right-wing.

On Monday, the head of ‘Blue Labour’ campaign group, Lord Glasman, urged Downing Street to “root out DEI” in hiring practices, sentencing decisions, and “wherever else we find it in our public bodies”.

“We are proud of our multiracial democracy and we utterly reject divisive identity politics, which undermines the bonds of solidarity between those of different sexes, races and nationalities,” he said.

Blue Labour has reportedly been influencing Downing Street’s policy on how to stem the loss of support to right-wing populist party, Reform UK, after the latter’s strong performance at last month’s local elections.

Earlier this year equalities minister, Seema Malhotra, said the government was “absolutely committed” to diversity and inclusion, and highlighted its introducing new legislation to Parliament that, if passed, would require employers with over 250 staff to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

In April, the UK justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, overruled new guidelines created by the Sentencing Council, which highlighted the need for pre-sentencing reports depending on age, sex, and ethnicity.