A “woke” RAF recruitment practise has left the service facing a pilot shortage. The recruitment directive saw an email sent to senior leaders telling them to stop choosing “useless white male pilots” in an attempt to improve diversity and was found to be unlawful in 2023.
In the wake of the scandal, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton was forced to apologise following an inquiry into bias. According to a leaked document seen by the Daily Mail, the service is now in need of a “higher number of pilots in training”, with applicant previously rejected set to be targeted. It comes following Keir Starmer’s declaration that he would be willing to put “boots on the ground” in Ukraine, which would inevitably be supported with air power.
In an RAF internal briefing note titled “Opportunities for professional transfer to the pilot specialisation”, staff are encouraged to transfer because of a need for more pilots “required for flying training”.
Mark Francois, the shadow Armed Forces minister, told the Daily Mail: “The RAF’s availability of combat pilots has been hit by a perfect storm: including woke manipulation of recruiting practices, the revival of civilian airlines post-Covid and technical issues with training aircraft, particularly engine reliability on the Hawk T2.
“All this really matters. If we are now going to see ‘jets in the sky’ defending any Ukrainian peace deal, then we need enough trained pilots to fly them.
“As we approach VE Day celebrations, it is worth remembering that the RAF never ran out of Spitfires or Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain, but we very nearly ran out of fighter pilots.”
Following the scandal, the RAF acknowledged that “some men experienced discrimination” with 31 individuals identified as being likely to have missed out on a £5,000 joining bonus had they been able to attempt to join.
An RAF spokesman told the Daily Mail: “We have sufficient pilots and aircrew to conduct all current operations and service the front line.
“Additionally, active management of the flying training system has reduced training times and the backlog of student aircrew in the training pipeline.
“This good progress has enabled us to reopen aircrew applications for serving personnel.”
An RAF Spokesman said: “These claims are nonsense. We have sufficient pilots and aircrew to conduct all current operations and service the front line.
“The past RAF recruitment discrimination issue has no relevance to pilot training or recruitment.
“We have made good progress in improving the flying training system which has enabled us to reopen aircrew applications for serving personnel. These improvements have reduced training times and shortened the backlog of student aircrew in the training pipeline.”