The GB News commentator Sophie Corcoran’s case against 10,000 Interns is part of a broader strategy of anti-DEI lawfare imported from Trump’s US
If our culture wars are to reach a nadir, it may be this single, absurd moment: a white female influencer is moving to sue a positive action charity over anti-white discrimination.
This is the basis on which the GB News commentator Sophie Corcoran is bringing a legal case against the 10,000 Interns Foundation, which helps to organise internship opportunities for young black people and other ethnic minorities. Corcoran says that she applied for a programme run by the foundation and the Bar Council, as she had been “exploring a legal career”, only to be rejected. The legal action claims that Corcoran faced a loss of employment opportunity, as well as discrimination in violation of the Equality Act.
It is curious that Corcoran is advancing this case on the basis of the Equality Act. Indeed, it is this very piece of legislation that underpins schemes promoting diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI). It is also legislation that swaths of the right want to do away with. As the Bar Council responded after the Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe denounced the scheme last October, the programme counts as “lawful positive action under sections 158 and 159 of the Equality Act based on evidence of under-representation in relation to access to the profession”.
