Should restricting UK public body internships to ethnic minorities be treated as unlawful discrimination?
UK public bodies including the National Audit Office, MI5, MI6, GCHQ and some councils run paid internships open only to ethnic minority, female or disadvantaged applicants to address under-representation. The Equality Act 2010 permits positive action under sections 158 and 159 to encourage participation where a group is underrepresented, but positive discrimination in recruitment is unlawful. Legal challenges such as the 2026 claim against the 10,000 Black Interns programme question whether exclusive schemes cross into direct race discrimination.
2 Opinions
Ethnic discrimination,, whether for or against a particular ethnicity, is still discrimination so should be illegal.
I am on the fence about this because I do support what efforts these institutions are making to dismantle the 'old boys' club network that has systematically shut out minorities for years. However, the principle of non-discrimination is either universal or it's meaningless. However I think there's a better way to represent those who have been excluded in the past and it's as simple as targeting low household income and regional deprivation areas, not corporate identity optics