The British tabloid Metro has accused the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service of lowering their standards for female recruits, as well as applicants from black and minority ethnic groups, in an attempt to reach its diversity target for 2021.

White male recruits would have to score 70 percent on verbal and numerical tests for the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service to get to the next stage, while the bar set for women and representatives of black, Asian and other ethnic groups is only 60 percent, a senior source told Metro.

The recruitment programme, which was introduced in 2017 and is worth over $130,000 annually, according to the insider, stipulates that every three months 1,000 applicants are shortlisted for the reactions test. Those who succeed then need to pass numerical, verbal and mechanical reasoning tests, thereafter advancing to the next stage: the physical exam.

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The new recruitment policy also allegedly includes Facebook advertising specifically targeting women’s profiles to “minimise white men applying”, and the West Midlands’ brigade was the first to adopt the new tactic in a bid to meet the workplace diversity targets. The ultimate goal, expected to be reached by 2021, is 60 percent of new recruits being female and 35 percent representing different ethnic groups.

“This directly discriminates against white men. This approach was intentionally adopted to directly manipulate the diversity figures to meet the targets. This approach to recruitment is appalling”, the source claimed.

The informant slammed the management, which uses public money, for allegedly wanting "to achieve their own agendas at all costs", calling the practice "not fair" to the community, which expects the best of the best to serve there.

“It’s difficult to swallow knowing people have not been able to achieve their dream careers because they are too white or too male”, the source noted, also saying that it is unfair to all applicants who could find out that “they were required to perform at a lesser level because of their gender or ethnicity”.

Metro cited a spokesman for the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service as saying that the approaches they are taking to recruitment are "carefully considered to ensure that they are appropriate, balanced and above all legal", as well as advancing their commitment to workplace diversity.

“Our recruitment shows our determination to challenge outdated perceptions about who can – and can’t – be a firefighter. We are working hard to break down barriers faced by people who could bring so much to our service and to their community”, he told the tabloid.

The report prompted outrage online, as netizens slammed throwing public safety under the bus for the sake of political correctness.

Logically, any kind of positive discrimination based on race or gender typically results in somebody getting employed at the expense of the best person for the job. In the fire service this will result in people dying. Theyre killing people for the sake of political correctness. — LEGO Baz 🇦🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🤘🖕 (@HappyBaz) 29 января 2019 г.

in name of diversity West Midlands fire service has made recruitment tests easier for ethnic and women candidates. well imeaning but completely wrong — Andrew Pierce (@toryboypierce) 28 января 2019 г.

Isn't this direct discrimination and illegal? There's a big difference between wanting something and needing it.

Fire service changes entrance test so it's deliberately harder for white men https://t.co/5RdFSPFcqE via @MetroUK — Sean O'Sullivan (@Greeneyeseeslie) 29 января 2019 г.

Time to burn all race & male/female monitoring as a waste of money £2 Trillion in debt UK can't afford & simply appoint on the basis of being competent. Equal in value but unequal in talent is a concept the Left-leaning Politically Correct brigade appear too thick to understand. — David Meacock (@A40David) 29 января 2019 г.

You are either the right Candidate for the Job or not. Religion or Colour should be nothing to do with it but we now live in a PC culture a statistic is more important than those worthy of the Job — Andrew McCoist (@McCoistAndy) 29 января 2019 г.

Just get the best people! Who cares what colour or gender they are🙄 — Andrew Furr (@AndrewFurr3) 29 января 2019 г.

​UKIP lawmaker from London David Kurten lambasted the course as “immensely patronizing”.

It is immensely patronising to assume that black, Asian and ethnic minority people are less intelligent than white people and need a lower pass rate to help them get a job. West Midlands Fire Service should reverse course immediately. https://t.co/AoKDEZ2sHS — David Kurten ن (@davidkurten) 29 января 2019 г.

​His stance found support among commenters.

Totally agree. Who would want to be patronised like that? If I were a woman from a minority I would want to get a position based on my hard work and merits not because of my gender or background. People need to speak out against this. — Ben A (@BrightonBTFC) 29 января 2019 г.