‘Flagrant Racism’: Britain’s Intelligence Service Under Fire Over Internship Available Only to Minorities

Hollywood may have only chosen white actors to star as one of cinema’s most recognizable spies, James Bond, but Britain’s intelligence service is trying to show that its staff includes more than just white men. And it is facing accusations of “racism” for promoting internships that exclude white British students. A writer, Paul Embery, shared a screenshot of the website of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, promoting its Summer Intelligence Partnership on X.“We need people from a range of backgrounds with different skills, knowledge, and perspectives,” the post reads. “Applicants must be in their penultimate or final year of university, from a Black, Asian, mixed heritage, or ethnic minority background, and a lower socio-economic background.”“We’re confining the applications for this internship to those within this demographic due to a current underrepresentation in our workforce,” it adds.A conservative British politician, Chris Philp, noted that Britain’s domestic security and counter-intelligence agency, MI5, is offering a similar internship and called the limitations “flagrant racism.”“White applicants for summer 2027 internships – incl. from disadvantaged backgrounds – can’t apply. The scheme must be scrapped. Applications should be merit-based & colour blind,” Mr. Philp wrote on X. “Working class white boys are among the most disadvantaged – yet are ignored.”The criticism of the internship program comes shortly after the New York Post reported that three candidates to play James Bond in the next movie are all white men, such as Jack Lowden, Callum Turner, Jacob Elordi, Paul Mescal, and Harris Dickinson. While Hollywood may not be ready to bring diversity to its depiction of Bond, Britain’s intelligence services have repeatedly tried to increase diversity in their ranks. In 2018, MI6 launched an ad campaign aimed at hiring more women and minority officers. The then-head of MI6, Alex Younger, told reporters at the time, “I want this opportunity to dispel the myths that still too often see potential candidates rule themselves out … There is no standard MI6 officer. If you have what it takes, then apply to join us.”A 2024 report found that just 9 percent of MI6 employees came from an ethnic minority background, and women made up 38 percent of the staff. Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission says employers can take what it calls a “positive action” to “address disadvantage or underrepresentation.”The commission specifies that the action must be “proportionate” to the problem it aims to address. However, it says that recruiting efforts “should clearly state the employer is seeking applications from everyone but wishes to encourage applications from people with a particular protected characteristic on the basis that they are underrepresented or face disadvantage.”

‘Flagrant Racism’: Britain’s Intelligence Service Under Fire Over Internship Available Only to Minorities

‘Flagrant Racism’: Britain’s Intelligence Service Under Fire Over Internship Available Only to Minorities

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