A recruitment officer at the Royal Air Force (RAF) resigned last year after finding about 160 cases of positive discrimination against better-qualified male white pilots, a senior MP has revealed.
Group Capt. Lizzy Nicholl had quit her role as head of the recruitment drive after determining that “about 160 cases of positive discrimination had taken place,” said Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chair of the Defence Select Committee in the House of Commons.
Tobias Ellwood MP speaking during the Veterans’ Mental Health Conference at King’s College London on Mar. 14, 2019. (Gareth Fuller/WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Charing a committee session on Wednesday, Ellwood said: “In summary, this was about a precedence of selection given to ethnic minority and female pilots over better-qualified white pilots in order to improve the RAF’s diversity profile, even though it could materially impact on the RAF’s operational performance. This all began back in November 2020 and ran until March 2021….