Dear readers — the University of Manchester’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network, set up to advance racial equality, is said to be the oldest staff network at the university. But in its 22-year history, one longstanding member tells us the atmosphere has never felt so charged. A whistleblowing complaint prompted an investigation into the 300-strong group last year, revealing evidence of bullying and inter-ethnic tensions. Now, the university is trying to oust the chairs — a move that’s been criticised as racist, amid accusations that the investigation itself is flawed. How have we got here?
A night of chaotic improv with Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Join the star of Ghosts and Taskmaster for an anarchic evening, where audience stories become the basis for surreal improvisations. After a sold-out debut national tour and roles in some of the funniest TV of our time, Smith-Bynoe is bringing his show Kool Story Bro to HOME for one night only next week – Wednesday 13 May. There’ll even be a surprise celebrity guest to add to the proceedings…
Start thinking of your best anecdotes and grab a ticket to one of Manchester’s funniest nights of the year.
Your Mill briefing
📮 When it comes to Labour councillors in Manchester — to quote one party source — “everyone is upset”. This is ahead of the local election polls opening today. The postal vote turnout in some traditionally Labour parts of the city is more than double previous years, indicating that there is a wave of new voters likely backing Greens and Reform. “We genuinely don’t know which way it’s going to go,” the source, who asked not to be named, said late yesterday.
Outside of Manchester, in places like Salford and Bolton, the threat from Reform has senior councillors — some leaders and deputy leaders — wondering whether they’ll keep hold of their seats. It’s expected to be a disastrous evening for Labour, whose local groups might be able to hold onto control of councils (due to only a third of council seats being up for election), but still “lose the night”. As the University of Manchester’s professor of political science Rob Ford told us over the weekend: “If you were to buy a parrot that could only say ‘Labour lost’, then got it to just say that on every ballot that was called up, it would be mostly right”. We will, of course, be in your inboxes early tomorrow once votes are counted with results, analysis and reaction. So keep your eyes peeled.
Also: Next Thursday our staff writer Jack Dulhanty will be in conversation with Ford at the University of Manchester’s Alliance Business School, discussing the results, Ford’s new book about the 2024 general election, and the volatility of the country’s politics since then. You can reserve a spot for free here.
🍛 The Royal Nawaab Stockport (AKA the Curry Pyramid) almost gave us a heart attack yesterday when they posted this announcement on Instagram…
Photo: @royalnawaabpyramid on Instagram.
Well, you’ll be as relieved as we are to know that the pyramid lives on. In fact, the ‘rumours’ in question presumably referred to this: A Channel 4 film crew have been following staff around for the last six months, filming for a new documentary. It’s set to air on the 22nd of this month, and Jack Walton hopes to god he’s not in it, after his less than complimentary review last year.
🏥 And Iris Nickson, the Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust governor who was suspended just as we published a long-read about her investigating the CV of the trust’s chair Tony Warne, has been reinstated after almost a year. We intend to cover this story in more detail in the coming weeks.
Is the University of Manchester’s BAME Staff Network ‘under attack’?
It’s February 2025, and the University of Manchester’s BAME Staff Network is gathered on Teams for its monthly call. The group is discussing a perceived lack of diversity in senior leadership via a presentation that was put together six years prior.
The staff from various faculties and senior management teams are shown on each slide, most of them alongside their photograph and title, with a ‘score’ for how many BAME people are in that department. The argument is this: Little progress has been made to promote diversity in senior leadership roles since the slideshow was first collated.
The University of Manchester’s BAME Network is said to be the oldest staff network at the institution — formed in 2004, it technically predates the university itself, as it was founded a few months before UMIST and Victoria University of Manchester merged. Since then, it has grown to over 300 members, who work with the university’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team to help shape policy and promote racial equality.
But, according to one network member (who requested anonymity for fear of retribution from the university), tensions are at an all-time high. The university commissioned an independent investigation into the network following a complaint last year, a summary of which was released to members last month. The report had found evidence of gendered and inter-ethnic tensions and bullying from BAME members themselves.
While the EDI team and the BAME Network collaborate to advance racial equality at the university, the BAME Network sees itself as an independent, employee-led group. The EDI Committee, on the other hand, is a formal governing body for implementing university-wide policies, and the report concluded that the BAME Network was adversarial in its approach towards the EDI team. Following the investigation’s findings, the university ordered the BAME Network’s chairs to stand down, leading to accusations from the network itself that the report is racist, wrongly caricatures Brown men as aggressors, and constitutes an overreach of university influence.
A University of Manchester spokesperson told The Mill it “has a legal and moral duty” to take the allegations raised in the whistleblowing complaint seriously but is “committed to charting a positive way forward for everyone.”
I’m told by a BAME Network member that it was this February 2025 meeting that played a catalytic role in what was to come.
This post is for paying subscribers only
Subscribe now
Already have an account? Sign in