Have your say on Common Sense Minister Esther McVey's decision to ban civil servants from wearing rainbow lanyards.

McVey said such roles presented a “distraction” from the core purpose of the Civil Service and an “inappropriate backdoor politicisation” of Whitehall, in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies think tank on Monday.

She said: “At the heart of these changes are value for money for the taxpayer and better customer service for the public.”

McVey added: “People want their public servants to be getting on with the job of making their lives better, not engaging in endless internal discussions about ideology, and I am not prepared to see pointless job creation schemes for the politically correct.”