EXCLUSIVE: Home Office urges staff to 'celebrate' diversity and housing refugees

As anti-immigration protests swept the nation, the leaked email from a senior Home Office civil servant urges officials to celebrate diversity, be proud of their work housing asylum seekers and to “show allyship”, GB News can reveal.

Daniel Hobbs, the Home Office Director General of the Migration and Borders Group, wrote the memo to staff.

He said: “It is the Home Office's responsibility to keep citizens safe and our country secure”, before telling staff to “be proud of [their] efforts… including those in Homeland Security, Public Safety, those working to provide safe accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, and the crisis response teams”.

Rupert Lowe, the Reform Party MP, told GB News: “This email is frighteningly tone deaf and does not recognise the Home Office's total failure to protect Britain’s borders.”

“Home Office leadership must be held to account. They have nothing to be proud of, and have objectively failed.”

Robert Bates, Director of research at the Centre for Migration Control, said: “Let’s be clear, the Home Office has nothing to be proud of when it comes to their handling of the asylum system.”

“It has allowed criminals, terrorists and violent individuals to flood into our country. The Clapham chemical attack rests solely on their shoulders, as does the petty crime and fear which exists in every community currently playing host to a migrant hotel.”

The senior mandarin, who is a Home Office “Faith and Belief Champion”, said officials should be proud of their working with the police “to bring safety and order back to our communities, and punish those responsible for this disorder”.

Hobbs’ memo also boasted that “The Home Office is one of the most diverse [departments] in the Civil Service - something which we celebrate.”

He continued: “The inclusion, understanding and celebration of our many faiths and beliefs and diverse cultures and experiences is an important part of how we effectively deliver our services and develop policies to help protect our communities.”

Mr Bates continued: “The country is literally on fire, and tens of millions of people are having their legitimate concerns about illegal and legal migration ignored, whilst the Home Office is patting itself on the back for being the most diverse department in the civil service.”

“This department has become nothing more than a self-indulgent social club for diversity activists. It needs to be axed.”

Hobbs urged colleagues to “show allyship by learning more about the diversity of our department and supporting colleagues, particularly within the team and office in which you work”.

The Faith and Belief “Champion”, a voluntary role held by civil servants to promote diversity ideology to other staff, pointed towards a Home Office group called “The NETWORK” for ethnic minority staff.

Hobbs wrote: “Our Faith & Belief networks and champions have three aims which feel very relevant at the present time:

"1. Amplify our dialogue about faith and belief - bringing faith and belief out of the shadows and ensuring they are a key part of our work on inclusion.

"2. Celebrating our shared values and the opportunities we have to work together - bringing our wider values into the workplace and finding opportunities to work together on a shared purpose.

"3. Facilitate difficult conversations where we need to - reflecting on where there are tensions we need to resolve and manage, and responding in ways which build mutual understanding and respect.

"The NETWORK is committed to promoting equality within the Home Office and aims to support colleagues from minority ethnic communities.”

Mr Lowe, the Reform politician, continued: “Home Office bureaucrats need to forget ‘allyship’ and the department’s ‘diversity’, and focus on the day job. Protecting our borders, therefore protecting the British people.”

“We don’t need ‘faith and belief champions’ across the Home Office, we need qualified individuals who understand the need for stronger border security. This woke nonsense has spread across the public sector like wildfire and it must be rooted out.”

“It fills me with dread that this blatant activism has been so welcomed and encouraged at the highest levels of the civil service. A total overhaul is required of the entire Whitehall system.”

The memo from Hobbs also condemned the Southport attack and the subsequent protests and riots, saying after the massacre: “All of us would have expected to spend the week in reflection and mourning after that horrific attack, but instead, we have seen the most dreadful scenes of violence, intimidation and disorder from groups of people in several towns and cities around the country using the tragedy of Southport to commit acts of criminality and hate.”

Hobbs wrote that the responsibilities of “Faith and Belief Champions” in the Home Office include to “Amplify our dialogue about faith and belief”, “Celebrating our shared values” and to “Facilitate difficult conversations”.

Mr Bates of the Centre for Migration Control said: “They have done nothing to tackle the single biggest national security crisis this country has seen in recent times and have splurged billions of taxpayers money on luxury hotels and social activities for illegal migrants.”

“To hell with their talk of “allyship”. The country needs solutions. This cannot happen whilst Rycroft and Hobbs continue to lead the Home Office while Britain burns.”

The Home Office were approached for comment.