Trevor Phillips under pressure after equality watchdog audit

Resignations and Audit Office's refusal to sign off accounts heap pressure on Trevor Phillips

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the government's flagship equality watchdog, faces an uncertain future after a series of top-level resignations and the revelation last night that the National Audit Office refused to sign off the organisation's accounts because of alleged irregularities.

Two commissioners and Phillips's director of strategy have quit in the past week. A third commissioner, Bert Massie, said yesterday that he was considering his position. Several members of the Equality and Human Rights Commission are said to be questioning Phillips's management style and political direction, amid predictions of more departures if he is reappointed for a further term in September.

Nicola Brewer, the former chief executive, who was the first to walk out of the EHRC, is said to have repeatedly challenged Phillips over financial issues in her role as chief accounting officer. Insiders said that while the problems were largely technical, as a former Foreign Office diplomat Brewer had a very different approach to the handling of public money.

It is understood that some of the problems identified by the NAO relate to the former Commission for Racial Equality, which Phillips chaired before it was rolled into the single equality watchdog, including the transfer of some staff to the new body and the disappearance of about £30,000-worth of laptops when the organisation was wound down.

Asked whether further resignations were likely, one senior EHRC source said: "If Trevor goes on behaving as he currently is, that is the risk. The reality is that 10 of the commissioners come up for reappointment in November and it would certainly be very embarrassing for him [if they did not reapply]. There may be an issue of a number of people who are up for renewal saying, 'if Trevor's going to continue as the chair, then no'."

A commission spokesman said the accounts were now with the NAO for final checks and it hoped they would be signed off next month, after several months of negotiation. The process had been "difficult", he added, but said that that was because they involved three predecessor bodies and the period of transition to a sole watchdog.

Brewer publicly raised problems with the accounts at a board meeting last December and became embroiled in an internal dispute over Phillips being paid for freelance consultancy work on diversity issues, which he was subsequently made to give up.

Kay Hampton, the second commissioner to resign, is also said to have had repeated clashes with Phillips. Union officials are handling a number of grievance claims involving more junior staff alleging bullying, discrimination and other employment issues.

Massie said yesterday that there was a "general unease about the direction" of the body, including whether it gave value for money. His decision to go public will increase the pressure on Harriet Harman, the Equalities minister, to intervene in the running of the commission.

Phillips's approach to equality issues, including recently questioning the concepts of institutional racism and of multiculturalism, and arguing for a greater focus on fairness than on discrimination, have made him a controversial figure for some veterans in the field.

But he is still highly rated by many senior government figures and is particularly close to Lord Mandelson, the business secretary. Friends of Phillips see the turmoil as an attempt by some traditionalists to capitalise on Brewer's departure by changing direction.

One senior official said the conflict on the commission partly reflected "what's going on in government between Mandelson and Harriet Harman, in the equality bill" and that staff had been drawn into the political conflict by proxy.

Sue Bond, National Vice President of the PCS union, which represents commission staff, said many were angry and frustrated: "There is frustration because they feel that the commission is not making best use of its staff and its resources to become a strong and authoritative body that really punches its weight."  continues here

Immigrants unlikely to return home during recession, equalities watchdog warns

Immigrants are unlikely to return to their homelands during the recession, according to a report, putting further pressure on the jobs market.

The study claims that foreign nationals who have put down roots in Britain are here to stay, and will not move back home just because of rising unemployment, which has just breached 2million for the first time in more than a decade.

Almost 3.7million foreign nationals moved to Britain between 1997 and 2006, according to the Migration Policy Institute's new study, while 1.5m people born in this country emigrated, leaving net migration at 2.2m.

” immigration is part of the solution to economic problems, not part of the problem. He said the solution was not to "clamp down" on people wanting to move to Britain but to help workers improve their skills so they can compete for jobs more effectively...”

And migration levels are predicted to remain high despite the economic downturn, making it more difficult for low-skilled Britons to find work and risking clashes with people born overseas.

There were protests across the country in January after Italian and Portuguese contractors were given jobs at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in North Lincolnshire, while support for the far-right British National Party is said to be increasing amid fears that British workers are losing out to foreigners in the hunt for scarce jobs.

The report published said: "Return migration is not likely to be highly responsive to rising unemployment for most immigrant groups... as strong social and family ties encourage immigrants to remain in the country.

"Extensive evidence from past downturns strongly supports the argument that migration flows are only partially sensitive to economic conditions.

"Furthermore, in the long run, the underlying drivers of migration... will remain strong, suggesting that migration flows will pick up again during the economic recovery."

Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of the campaign group Migrationwatch UK, said: "In the past, a recession has only had a temporary effect on immigration but we are now in an entirely new situation where large numbers of European citizens can enjoy the full benefit of the welfare state rather than go home.

"So it would be no surprise if they do just that."

But Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Government watchdog that ordered the study, insisted that immigration is part of the solution to economic problems, not part of the problem.

He said the solution was not to "clamp down" on people wanting to move to Britain but to help workers improve their skills so they can compete for jobs more effectively.

Mr Phillips said: "The solution will lie in adapting our workforce for the new economy – an economy that will be more knowledge-driven, not built around the large hulking industries and even more reliant on innovation and skilled workers to fuel growth."

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, claimed migration "probably will reduce" in the future.

She said: "I think it will go down but I don't think it's going to disappear tomorrow." continues here

Help the white working class or risk surge in far-Right extremists, says equalities chief

Britain risks a surge in Right-wing extremism if it fails to help its white working class weather the recession, the equalities chief will warn today. 

Trevor Phillips will break with years of political convention to call for the law to be changed to enshrine positive discrimination in favour of disadvantaged whites. 

His startling intervention in the race debate is a rebuke to Harriet Harman, who earlier this year trumpeted plans to make companies discriminate in favour of women and ethnic minorities. 

Mr Phillips said ministers should allow councils and education authorities to introduce 'positive action' programmes aimed specifically at young whites unable to compete with highly skilled immigrants because the 'need is so great'. 

And he warned that immigration has fuelled 'resentments that are real and should not be dismissed – resentments felt by white, black and Asian'. 

The chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission set out his thinking to the Daily Mail ahead of his appearance at a CBI event on immigration today alongside immigration minister Phil Woolas. 

Mr Phillips said failure to help white families hit by the downturn could drive them into the arms of far-Right parties similar to those that have brought turmoil to Austria, Belgium and Holland. 

He also warned that ministers needed to acknowledge the resentment by some whites over what they see as unfair help given to blacks and Asians. 

'What we are seeing is that there is a whole group of people, a large proportion of whom are white, who are going to suffer from this crisis who are going to be the people we should want to help, particularly because they come from the wrong side of town,' he said. 

'We are going to have to do something special for them. We are going to have to put extra resources where young people can't compete with migrants' skills. 

'And in some parts of the country, it is clear that what defines disadvantage won't be black or brown, it will be white. And we will have to take positive action to help some white groups, what we might call the white underclass.' 

And he warned: 'We know what the political consequences are because we have seen it on the Continent. 

'If we ignore the fact some white groups are going to be disadvantaged we will end up with the same kind of conflicts we have seen in Austria, Belgium and now Holland, where the anti-immigrant racist Right-wing parties get a big boost.

'We need to do more to help those who are going to suffer and who will then think that the reason they are suffering is their colour. 

'We need to pay attention to that white underclass that happens not to live in the right part of town.' 

Politicians have long shied away from allowing positive discrimination, claiming it flies in the face of equality laws. 

But its supporters claim the system is a necessary way of helping minorities finding it difficult to get a job or housing, by pushing them to the top of the queue. 

In June, Miss Harman angered business leaders by revealing plans for new anti-discrimination laws.

She said she wanted to see more women and ethnic minorities promoted into senior posts and would use next year's Equalities Bill to discriminate in their favour. 

Under the plans, firms will be forced to reveal the salary gap between their male and female staff to shame employers into bringing them into line. 

But in what was seen as a clear 'white men need not apply', she made no attempt to suggest that whites could benefit from positive discrimination as well. 

Mr Phillips said he wanted to see the bill used to help whites. And he added Miss Harman had been looking at the work of the commission. 

'Positive action now in Britain is more likely to mean programmes for people who are poor, white and come from workless households than it is for East African Asians, for example,' he added. 

Earlier this summer, Miss Harman insisted: 'It is important to encourage applications from minority groups, but we are strongly against positive discrimination so someone gets a job just because they are black or disabled.' 

Mr Phillips also warned against allowing the economic crisis to trigger an outburst of anti-immigrant feeling in the UK. 

'It's dangerous and it's divisive,' he said. He claimed immigrants could act as a 'buffer' against the impact of recession because they are more likely to return to their countries than stay in Britain and swell the unemployment register.  continues here

Britain's most popular television programmes 'too white', says Trevor Phillips

Some of Britain’s most popular television programmes including the Vicar of Dibley and Who Wants to be a Millionaire have been criticised for being “too white” in a report led by Trevor Phillips, the equality chief.

The research found that Black and Asian viewers felt that despite the growing number of ethnic minorities living in the UK, they still felt under-represented on hit television shows. 

When non-whites did appear in dramas and soaps, they said they were often “token” characters who were stereotyped as Asian shopkeepers, such as the character Dev in Coronation Street, and black single mothers like Denise in EastEnders.

Viewers praised reality shows like the X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and The Apprentice, in which ethnic minorities were defined by their talents rather than their skin colour. 

However, they criticised shows such as Hollyoaks, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, Friends and the Vicar of Dibley for consistently not having enough ethnic minority characters. 

Mr Phillips, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that all the evidence showed that television was still “hideously white where it matters”, a reference to those in senior roles. 

“Most ethnic minority participants felt the media had a responsibility to reflect Britain’s diversity across all genres and was failing to do so in three main ways: by relying on tokenistic and stereotyped representation of characters; by representing extreme and exaggerated characters; and by failing to reflect the realities of contemporary ethnic minority culture,” he said. 

“All these shortcomings were attributed to some extent to the perceived lack of a representative power base within UK media.” 

The study was commissioned by Channel 4 following the Celebrity Big Brother race row last year when Jade Goody and glamour model Danielle Lloyd rounded on Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood star. 

Black and Asian viewers said they were concerned that white viewers got the wrong impression of ethnic minority groups because they were often inaccurately portrayed on screen. 

Muslim respondents said that a recent episode of Wife Swap featured a Muslim family where the mother was “completely over the top”, while Asian dramas often focused on arranged marriages. 

One Indian woman told researchers: “We would like to see a more realistic view of Asians. A lot of Asians are professionals and educated and we don’t just work in corner shops.” 

Another black Caribbean man said: “They don’t portray black people doing different roles and in every aspect of every field, like doctors, lawyers and architects.” 

The research comes only weeks after Dr Samir Shah, a non-executive director at the BBC, accused broadcasters of rampant tokenism in their programming. 

He claimed that a “tick-box approach” to showing non-whites had left minority viewers feeling embarrassed and irritated. continues here