British Council advises staff to avoid the term 'Brits' in a 'non-discrimination' guide

Despite having a mandate of promoting Britain to the world, The British Council has asked its staff not to refer to "Brits" or '"he Queen's English".

The tax-payer funded body has offered advice to its members in a new "non-discriminatory" guide which states: "Careless, uninformed or ill-considered use of language can categorise, marginalise, exclude or stereotype".

Terms such as "British English" or "Queen's English" has been deemed problematic in the new guide.

The guide states that the terms may cause offence as "it implies that these varieties of English are more correct or of greater importance than others".

The document was obtained by The Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information legislation, and it advises against the use of the word "Brits" to describe people from the UK, "as the term generally does not include people from Northern Ireland".

The term "politically correct" is also deemed as improper, as it "downplays and trivialises the hurt and offence caused".

A British Council spokeswoman has said the guide serves as an "advisory", saying "'We are proud of our work promoting the UK to the rest of the world. Last year we reached more than 791 million people globally, so it is important the language we use reflects the diversity of our audience."

She added "'As a global organisation, we are committed to being as inclusive as possible. This guide helps our colleagues across the world to achieve that aim".