MI5 and MI6 spies told to avoid shaking hands with Muslims and copy Justin Trudeau's technique to avoid offence

Leaked diversity plans for MI5 and MI6 agents include a statement from a Muslim civil servant who says she refuses to shake hands with the opposite sex due to her religion.

The civil servant, who works in HR in Whitehall, suggested Muslim spies use “Justin Trudeau’s hand-on-heart greeting, whilst explicitly stating that you don’t shake hands.”

For all other colleagues, she wrote: “For the men, allow the Muslim woman to make the first move. For the women, allow the Muslim man to make the first move.”

The HR worker said as “a visibly observant Muslim… I don’t shake hands with people of the opposite gender”.

The historian and broadcaster Rafe Heydel-Mankoo told GB News: “Muslims did not magically arrive in the UK yesterday.”

“For well over a century, generations of Muslims have lived and worked in the UK knowing full well that participation in British society requires the adoption of our cultural norms. This includes shaking hands, the most basic of British, and Western, practices.”

He continued: “We have no hope of integrating diverse populations into this country if we elevate minority cultures over British culture. It is not we who must make concessions. Those who arrive in Britain with the intention of making it their home must adapt to our ways.”

“Where would this end? If we make a concession for hand shaking, there is no logical reason why the matter should end there,” Mr Heydel-Mankoo said.

“Should we enforce segregation between the sexes more broadly? Should non-Muslims in Britain have to eat behind screens during Ramadan for fear of causing offence? This is how I had to eat when I visited Egypt during the Muslim holy month.”

Seen by GB News, the Mission Critical Toolkit, a diversity action plan for spies in MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, was written in July 2022.

Harrison Pitt, a senior editor at The European Conservative, said: "If the mass importation into Britain of untold millions from wildly different cultures means that we, the host population, must compromise on our national identity and settled habits, that only bolsters our right to reject multiculturalism and the diversity that drives it in the first place."

"The woke takeover of the security services is a deeply worrying development."

"Their job is to keep us safe, not push race communism and gender ideology onto the public or their staff."

Last week, GB News revealed the toolkit warns spies against displaying “alpha behaviours”.

The toolkit outlines actions spies can take to “Support Marginalised People and Groups”, including by participating in events, “For example Black History Month (October), Anti-racism day (March), Stephen Lawrence Day (April), Windrush Day (June), National Inclusion Week (September)”.

Other actions include boosting “marginalised voices” by suggesting them for speaking events and spies are told to “refuse to speak on all male or all white panels”.

Bosses are asked whether “accessible, gender-neutral bathrooms available” and to “run inclusive meetings”.

Spies are told that at the end of meetings they should “Invite observations and reflections” by asking “Has the meeting met its objectives? Is there a clear way forward? Has the meeting been inclusive?”.

Managers are recommended to nominate staff for 13 separate diversity awards, including the “European Diversity Awards”, “National Diversity Awards”, “BITC Gender Equality Awards” and “Excellence in Diversity awards”.

The national security toolkit features an image of a pride progress flag under a section on LGBT issues; the different colours are explained as “pink, pale blue and white stripes, to represent marginalised people of colour, the trans community, and those living with HIV/AIDS. The circle represents intersex”.

A survey is cited from the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall which says: “Almost two in five bi people (38%) aren’t out to anyone at work about their sexual orientation, compared to 7% of gay men and 4% of lesbians.”

Managers are told to “Promote wellbeing” among spies by “facilitating regular breaks, encouraging colleagues to take their full lunch break and having a good work/life balance” and to “Focus on the cumulative barriers to progression that exist for women and ethnic minorities from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.”

A “reverse mentoring scheme” is recommended “to enable senior colleagues actively to learn from more junior colleagues” and “exchange knowledge and experiences of different facets of culture, diversity and inclusion”.

The toolkit describes the “Benefits” of this scheme, including that “More junior colleagues [are] empowered to share their lived experiences of racism, discrimination, or other biases they have encountered in their workplace”.

The document stresses that: “Reverse mentoring is not an opportunity to defend existing practices or policies, but to actively listen and make the necessary changes to ensure a better working culture for your colleagues”

Spies are also told to be aware of unconscious bias and to undertake unconscious bias training, despite the practice being banned by ministers in 2020 for being counterproductive.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "A lot of work has been done to review Equality, Diversity and Inclusion spending across Government, particularly over the last year.

"It is right taxpayers have value for money, and we are considering a presumption against this type of spending in the Civil Service.’’