![Grant Shapps said he is willing to challenge 'woke culture that has seeped into public life'](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/02/11/TELEMMGLPICT000351361653_17076854809910_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps: A woke and extremist culture has infiltrated the Army
Defence Secretary says military needs a ‘proper shake-up’ to refocus its core mission of ‘being a lethal fighting force’
![Grant Shapps said he is willing to challenge 'woke culture that has seeped into public life'](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/02/11/TELEMMGLPICT000351361653_17076854809910_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=680)
The Army’s time and resources are being “squandered to promote a political agenda”, the Defence Secretary has said, as he held crisis talks with military chiefs over plans to relax security checks to increase diversity.
Grant Shapps said a “woke” and “extremist culture” had infiltrated the British Army and the military needed to focus on being a lethal fighting force.
He said that, amid the threat from Russia and the conflict in the Middle East, it was “inconceivable” that he would allow the standards for security clearance to be relaxed after The Telegraph revealed military personnel wanted to relax checks to promote ethnic diversity among officers.
On Sunday, Mr Shapps spoke to senior military chiefs to express his concerns about the plans and on Monday will officially launch a review of ethnicity, diversity and inclusivity policies in his department.
The military is suffering a recruitment crisis and has repeatedly failed to meet its targets, including boosting women and ethnic minority numbers.
However, all three branches of the military have also been plagued by a series of rows over how they attempt to improve diversity.
Last year, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton had to apologise for an RAF diversity drive that discriminated against white men.
![A Royal Navy poster showing the differences between sexual orientation and gender identity](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/02/11/TELEMMGLPICT000365891760_17076862073330_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqclfnI3HAhNUHMU08wPfq4ycF4l6zHKmxiVkeqiaQJWo.jpeg?imwidth=350)
A leaked army report, commissioned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), revealed on Sunday that officials had considered ways to “challenge” security clearance requirements for recruits from overseas to boost diversity and inclusion.
In response, Mr Shapps said: “I am committed to improving the working conditions and morale of all those who work in the military and Ministry of Defence.
“This is not only the right thing to do but is key to improving recruitment and retainment in our forces.
“However, time and resources are being squandered to promote a political agenda which is pitting individuals against each other, when what we need is a common set of values which delivers the military we need to defend us and our allies.
“This extremist culture has infiltrated public life over years and it is time for a proper shake-up, designed to refocus the military on its core mission – being a lethal fighting force.”
He told The Telegraph “At a time when the world faces a threat as serious as any time in the last 50 years, it is inconceivable that I would allow a lowering of standards on security clearance.
“And no one should be offended by having religion as part of remembrance services. You don’t have to be Christian to appreciate and respect the history and traditions of the United Kingdom.
“There is a woke culture that has seeped into public life over time and is poisoning the discourse. Anyone who questions it is dismissed out of hand.
“I am willing to stand up to challenge it.”
It comes as the relaxed vetting policy for overseas applicants has been criticised as “wicked” in an open letter to Mr Shapps from 12 former senior military officers.
They warned: “With Islamism and other extremism rampant, this [policy] is nothing short of dangerous madness.”
“The Russians, Iranians and Chinese will be observing our descent into self-hatred and obsessing over diversity and inclusion with glee” and that “woke” defence policies are leading to a “moral disarmament” in the Armed Forces.
“Nothing could be better calculated to destroy the esprit de corps of our armed forces than this poisonous farrago of nonsense or to deter from serving the Crown precisely the type of people most motivated and apt to our high calling. Ours is a tolerant country and this obsessive racialising of everything is both disgusting and reprehensible,” they add.
The Defence Secretary is launching an official review into ethnicity, diversity and inclusivity policies that is set to begin on Monday. It has been called for as part of efforts to end the “poisonous” woke culture creeping into the armed forces and aims to tackle “deeply unpopular” policies including the use of gender neutral toilets.
Writing for the Daily Express, Mr Shapps also pledged to review policies such as unconscious bias training and the introduction of gender-neutral toilets, which he labelled “deeply unpopular and troubling”.
The leaked report, entitled The British Army’s Race Action Plan, which The Telegraph understands the MoD commissioned the Army to produce and later approved, states that the Army “struggles to attract talent from ethnic minority backgrounds into the officer corps”.
It describes security clearance vetting as being “the primary barrier to non-UK personnel gaining a commission in the Army” and says it will “challenge SC [security clearance] requirements” to boost representation in the intelligence and officer corps, positions which have “uncontrolled access to secret assets”.
A senior defence source defended the Army’s decision to widen its recruiting pool by looking abroad to Commonwealth nations, as has been the case with the Gurkhas.
Mr Shapps added: “We want people from all backgrounds to serve in our military.
“But some of the policies and plans reported in the Telegraph appear to be more about a political agenda than practically improving the lives of our dedicated soldiers and military personnel.”
The Telegraph can reveal that the MoD has 93 diversity networks for personnel to discuss race, gender and mental health. The groups issue diversity guidance, display posters and celebrate diversity-related events across the forces.
In comparison, the Home Office has 19 formal staff networks and the Ministry of Justice has 18.
![A Royal Navy poster showing the differences between sexual orientation and gender identity](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/02/11/TELEMMGLPICT000365891760_17076862073330_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqclfnI3HAhNUHMU08wPfq4ycF4l6zHKmxiVkeqiaQJWo.jpeg?imwidth=350)
In January, The Telegraph revealed that the Royal Navy is redeploying marines and sailors to become diversity and inclusion officers amid ongoing recruitment challenges in manning its ships.
The shortage of servicemen and women has already led the Navy to decommission two warships because it does not have enough sailors to crew its new fleet of frigates.
Many military figures are understood to be unhappy about their diversity targets. Last year, the head of the navy said that they “can lead to some strange behaviours”.
Admiral Sir Ben Key, the First Sea Lord, admitted he felt “nervous” about targets despite the MoD’s goal of ensuring 30 per cent of the armed forces’ new recruits are women by 2030.
In 2021, the director of the National Army Museum warned that the drive for diversity could mean it struggles to recruit enough soldiers. Justin Maciejewski, who commanded troops in Iraq, said it was imperative the armed forces did not lose sight of its “core workforce” by focusing too heavily on recruiting candidates from different backgrounds.
A source close to the Defence Secretary said: “He’s determined it is rooted out on his watch. He’s ready to go to battle on it.
“There are personnel issues that need addressing in the armed services but some of these policies are about a woke agenda.”
Michael Gove, the Housing Secretary, agreed with his colleague as he said political correctness should not “impair our ability to defend our borders”.
He told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “Grant Shapps has been looking at the specific policies we have in the Ministry of Defence to ensure that we strike the right balance, that we provide protection for individuals in our armed forces, that we make sure that we draw all the talent available in this country to ensure that
“We have a strong and diverse military, but also to make sure that these policies operate in such a way as to ensure that political correctness, or some of the more ‘out there’ approaches that people take towards diversity, equity and inclusion don’t impair our ability to defend our borders and to make sure that this country is secure.”
On Sunday, aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales’s planned departure to lead the biggest Nato exercise since the Cold War was delayed at the last minute. The Royal Navy’s £3 billion aircraft carrier should have set sail from Portsmouth to lead a carrier strike group of eight ships, but it is now understood that the warship is being prepared to sail towards Norway on Monday instead. The reason for the delay was not revealed.