Lincolnshire council leader Sean Matthews dismisses DEI training
The new leader of Lincolnshire County Council says he will not take part in diversity training in his new role.Speaking on BBC Politics North, Reform UK's Sean Matthews also said he was not interested in climate change and that his priorities were to save money and "cut out the waste".Earlier in the week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted on social media that all people should be treated equally and any UK Reform councillor instructed to take part in diversity or climate change training would "do no such thing".The Green Party's Natalie Bennett said diversity training was a good use of taxpayers' money and said "to be that dismissive is really, deeply disturbing".
Matthews was announced as the county council's new leader this week after Reform took control from the Conservative Party in the elections on 1 May."I've not been asked to do any diversity training, which is a good start," he said. "I think that the staff here may have an inkling as to what sort of response they would get from me. So that's not happening, as far as I'm concerned, unless it's hidden in the undergrowth somewhere."And as far as climate change is concerned.. I'm not interested."Echoing comments made last week by the county's new mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns, he said that diversity officers are called "different things" and said "we've got to get a grip of that".
Presenter Tim Iredale asked Bennett if she thought diversity training was a good use of taxpayers' money.She said: "Absolutely, because I think that we have long-term historical prejudices, long-term historical discrimination."Fixing that is not just the right thing to do morally, it's the thing that ensures that we have the best possible council services, that we are able to engage everyone in our community and that the council services meet the needs of everybody in that community."We surely should want to ensure that everyone in our community can flourish, can have the best opportunities to participate and to be that dismissive is really, deeply disturbing."Now the opposition on the council, the Conservative group leader, councillor Richard Davies, said: "Lincolnshire County Council is a well run, prudently financially managed authority, delivering really important services. "This is not a political football to be kicked around."[Reform UK have] made a lot of commitments around borrowing, about council tax, about improving services, that we will hold them to account to deliver."Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
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