Police being 'hampered by too much focus on diversity, equality and inclusion', powerful think-tank warns, citing Southport, Nottingham and Henry Nowak killers as examples

By RYAN HOOPER, CRIME CORRESPONDENT Published: 22:00, 26 July 2026 | Updated: 22:00, 26 July 2026 Diversity programmes are costing police forces tens of millions of pounds a year, contributing to cases of 'two-tier' justice, a think-tank has suggested. The Policy Exchange said the Nottingham stabbings, the Southport atrocity and the murder of Henry Nowak were examples where the State failed to properly deal with criminal behaviour due to concerns about being labelled racist. It said the clamour for police chiefs to chase 'an equality of outcomes' amounted to a 'rejection of policing's duty to act without fear or favour and the implementation of two-tier policing'. And it estimates that the amount spent on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) activities by police forces and Police and Crime Commissioners since the murder of George Floyd in 2020 has cost at least £631million – enough to pay for thousands of frontline officers. David Spencer, a former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector and Policy Exchange's head of crime and justice, said his report revealed 'the astonishing cost of the police's DEI obsession'. He said: 'Police forces have sought to entrench the radical ideology of "anti-racism" into British policing. 'In doing so some police chiefs have set policing against its own foundational principle – to act "without fear or favour".' He said analysis suggested these policies were driven by police chiefs rather than by politicians. Killers (left-to-right) Vickrum Digwa, Axel Rudakubana and Valdo Calocane are all referenced in the Policy Exchange's report   He said: 'It is a modern-day tragedy that many of our Chief Constables simply cannot be trusted to resolve this alone.  'It's time to restore the principle of "equality before the law" in policing. Nothing less than the fundamental legitimacy of British policing is at stake.' According to the report, police forces have been focussing more heavily on DEI measures since Mr Floyd, an unarmed black American man, was killed by a white police officer in America six years ago. The think-tank suggested police forces across England and Wales are overly concerned about accusations of racism. The report said: 'The discussion around the existence of "two-tier" or "differential" policing will no doubt continue. 'However, what we have uncovered is suggestive that where examples appear to have taken place they cannot merely be put down to either isolated cases or the misplaced decisionmaking of individual police officers. 'They are very likely the result of the policy-making and decision-making which we show has taken place at the most senior levels of policing over recent years.' It cites the cases of killers Valdo Calocane, Axel Rudakubana, and Vickrum Digwa as examples where the ethnicity of the perpetrators has impeded judgment. The report suggests police forces are spending too much time concentrating on diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) measures  A public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks heard the mental health team assessing Calocane three years before he killed three people considered the 'over-representation' of young black men in detention before deciding to release him into the community. Elsewhere, a social worker accused Rudakubana's head teacher of racially stereotyping him when she flagged concerns about his behaviour before he went on to stab three little girls to death, and injure several more, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport in 2024. And more recently, it emerged Hampshire Police arrested Southampton student Henry Nowak as he lay dying after being stabbed by Sikh man Digwa. He was falsely accused of racism by his killer. The Policy Exchange report said: 'Often these circumstances arise because professionals have feared being labelled a racist. The examples are numerous. 'To date, however, the extent to which cases such as these represent either isolated instances of poor decision making or the outcome of systemic practice and policy has been unclear.' The report estimates forces have spent at least £631million on DEI measures and the Police Race Action Plan since 2020, based on extrapolated figures from five constabularies in England. This includes an estimated £431million on the manpower costs of DEI training, £177million on jobs with a DEI element, and £23million on external training and consultancy. Last night Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the police 'should cancel all this DEI nonsense and spend the time and money catching criminals instead'. He said: 'This is a shocking waste of taxpayers' money and completely the wrong priority when the public rightly want to see more police on the streets tackling the knife crime, burglary and shoplifting we see every day.' He said the Tories want to 'put an end to identity politics in the state, including in policing, once and for all'.