The Government must send a “strong message” that discrimination in the fire service is unacceptable in order to protect young people embarking on careers as firefighters, ministers have been told.
Labour former minister Dawn Butler called on the Government to protect firefighters from racism and misogyny following an independent culture review of London Fire Brigade (LFB).
The Opposition frontbench meanwhile called for a review into the culture of other fire services.
The review found “dangerous levels of ingrained prejudice against women”, while colleagues from minority backgrounds were “frequently the target of racist abuse”.
It was established in response to the death of firefighter Jaden Francois-Esprit, who took his own life in August 2020, and who had worked in Ms Butler’s Brent Central constituency.
Ms Butler claimed that London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe was willing to work to change the organisation’s culture, but told the Commons: “I need to know what this government is going to send as their strong message, because we cannot bring back Jaden whose life was lost.
“But the Government can make sure that other young people starting out on their career in the London Fire Brigade are not met with the same experience, but with consideration, acceptance and a service that is alert and awake to bullying and discrimination.”
She also urged Tory backbenchers not to dismiss the review of LFB’s culture for being “too woke or promoting wokery”.
Home Office minister Chris Philp agreed the discrimination revealed by the review was “completely unacceptable”.
I spoke to the London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe on Friday to set out my strong feelings that this behaviour is totally unacceptable and needs to completely end— Chris Phelp, Home Office minister
He added: “I spoke to the London Fire Brigade commissioner Andy Roe on Friday to set out my strong feelings that this behaviour is totally unacceptable and needs to completely end.
“As she said, he has committed to implementing all 23 of the report’s recommendations, including importantly outsourcing the complaints service so complaints are dealt with externally to the fire brigade.”
Elsewhere in the debate, the Government faced calls to establish a national review into the culture of other fire services.
Shadow Home Office minister Sarah Jones said: “We have repeatedly said that on police failures we have had enough of the Home Office sitting back and leaving it to individual forces. Will the minister immediately commission a fundamental review of national standards and culture in our fire service?
“Will he agree now to publish national statistics on misconduct? And will he today commit to national professional standards?”
She added: “There were 11,000 fires across London alone last year, our brave firefighters run into danger every day. We must expect the best from all of them and stamp out this culture of misogyny and racism. The Government must end their complacency and act.”
Mr Philp said “there is not any complacency”, adding the Government had recently published a white paper “setting out a range of measures to tackle cultural issues such as those that we have heard”.
He added: “She asked about issues outside of the London Fire Brigade and I agree that those do need attention, and I will be discussing with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services what work they can do, to look at behavioural and cultural issues such as these across the whole country.”
Mr Philp said he will also be in touch with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, “who of course has oversight responsibility for the London Fire Brigade”.
But Labour former minister Ben Bradshaw continued calls for a national review, telling the Commons: “This feels depressingly familiar to the many times that ministers came to this House to reassure us about the culture of the Metropolitan Police.”
The Exeter MP added: “Would it not save him and us a great deal of time if he were to agree to the recommendation in the report of a national review, supported by the Labour party, rather than having to come back time and time again to repeat these excuses, to say there is no complacency, when actually this toxic culture is not being dealt with at local level?”
