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A board member of the government’s equality watchdog liked or retweeted posts on social media criticizing the Black Lives Matters protesters and describing the words misogynist and homophobic as “highly ideological propaganda terms” on the latest controversy besetting the EHRC, The Guardian may reveal.
Alasdair Henderson, who led the Human Rights and Equality Commission investigation into Labor Party anti-Semitism this year, also liked a tweet denouncing “offensive fanatics” accusing Roger Scruton of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and homophobia, and one from Douglas Murray, who once called for a ban on Muslim immigration to Europe.
The EHRC report he led, released last month, stated: “The Labor Party did not investigate complaints of anti-Semitism based on likes, retweets and shares on social media.”
After being contacted by The Guardian, the commission said it would investigate Henderson’s use of social media. He is one of nine EHRC commissioners and has been on the oversight board since 2018.
While the commissioners are political appointees, the watchdog is an independent body created “to promote equality and diversity, eliminate illegal discrimination, and protect and promote the human rights of everyone in Britain.”
On September 3, Henderson liked a tweet which read: “It’s surprising to me that conservative ministers still reel and float when some idiot in the media conjures up the magic words ‘misogynist’ and ‘homophobic’, as if they were empirical statements about reality, not propaganda terms highly ideological. “
On July 1 he retweeted a comment which said: “All the anti-fascists in Europe who protest against the United States, a really free country, are too cowardly to do the same for Hong Kong, which is now practically a dictatorship.”
Henderson is the latest commissioner whose views have come under scrutiny after the announcement that David Goodhart and Jessica Butcher would be appointed to the board by Liz Truss, the equality minister.
Goodhart has praised the government’s “hostile environment” policy, while Butcher urged women who have been discriminated against at work not to “go cry with someone” but to “take responsibility for avoiding the situation.”
Lord Woolley, a former commissioner, said: “What has been the process for screening people who enter the commission for equality? There is a procedure that is supposed to look at these people and examine them and yet this guy [Henderson] are you doing this on twitter? What was the procedure when you went through David Goodhart, with the litany of comments he’s made that are deeply disturbing?
Woolley, director and co-founder of Operation Black Vote, said that while the EHRC continued to produce good work, like its recent Windrush report, it feared it had become “deeply politicized,” highlighting its refusal to conduct an investigation into Islamophobia in the Party. Conservative.
“We need now more than ever an EHRC that is fiercely independent, diverse and ready to tackle the great inequalities of the moment,” he said.
Scruton, the philosopher and writer who died in January, was charged with anti-Semitism when, after being appointed a government housing advisor in November 2018, it emerged that he had previously described the Jews of Budapest as part of a “Soros empire.” he claimed. Islamophobia and homophobia were “made up” and that homosexuality was not “normal.”
When the story broke, Henderson liked it a tweet which read: “If Roger Scruton, one of our most esteemed thinkers and writers, is kicked out of public life by offensive fanatics, we’d better pack up and go home.”
On June 24, Henderson liked a tweet from Douglas Murray in which, responding to a statement from the University of Cambridge defending the right of academic staff to have personal and controversial opinions, Murray said: “Nope. Nobody believes that. We remember the cases of Noah Carl and Jordan Peterson. Their institution dropped them in 2 seconds once the mob came for them. But it’s interesting that you’re defending someone who is actually a racing fanatic this time. “
In 2006, Murray delivered a speech in the Dutch parliament, saying that “all immigration to Europe from Muslim countries must stop” and “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be tougher in all areas.” Noah Carl was fired from a Cambridge University college after a panel found he had collaborated with far-right extremists on his writings linking intelligence to race.
Carl has defended his work on race and genetics, arguing that “stifling debate on taboo topics can in itself cause active harm.” Peterson, the self-proclaimed “professor against political correctness,” has said that identity politics are “equally dangerous” on the left and right and that he advocates individual responsibility. Murray later said that his speech in the Netherlands “does not reflect my views” but continues to warn about the “social issues” raised by Islam.
In June, outgoing EHRC President David Isaac said: “The Covid pandemic and the Black Lives Matter campaigns have sharpened society’s awareness of inequality and the need for human rights.”
But in the same month Henderson liked a thread of tweets that included: “The Met is clearly treating BLM protests (illegal under Covid standards) with much more leniency than it has treated other protests and meetings. This is poison to an open society, but nobody seems to care. “
The appointment of Goodhart and Butcher as a member of the ECHR effective December 1 was announced on the same day that the joint committee on human rights in parliament published a report concluding that the ECHR had not “provided leadership or gained confidence in the fight against racial equality ”. The report called for the re-creation of a body similar to the Commission for Racial Equality, which was dissolved and incorporated into the EHRC.
Goodhart said the Windrush scandal “was not the so-called ‘hostile environment’ at work, it was a heinous mistake. The real question is how do we make the state verification fair. ” He said he was committed to “a fair and transparent system.” Butcher has declined to answer questions about his views, but said he would work “to advance equality issues in the UK.”
A spokesperson for the EHRC said: “We will be investigating this use of social media and the issues raised.” Henderson declined to comment.
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