A police force has been found guilty of discrimination after it refused to give a potential recruit a job because he was a white heterosexual man.

Cheshire Police are believed to be the first organisation in the UK to be found guilty of using positive action to discriminate by deciding to shun 25-year-old Matthew Furlong in 2017.

The force rejected him while in the midst of a diversity drive after a report found in 2015 it was one of only four constabularies to have no black officers.

Mr Furlong, whose father is a serving detective inspector at Cheshire Police, claimed he was told after the interview stage "it was refreshing to meet someone as well prepared as yourself" and that he "could not have done any more".

The graduate in particle physics and cosmology was later told he had lost out to other candidates, leading his father to lodge a complaint.

In a landmark case, Cheshire Police were found to have used positive action to discriminate against Mr Furlong on the grounds of sexual orientation, race and gender.

An employment tribunal ruled that while positive action can be used to boost diversity, it should only be applied to distinguish between candidates who were all equally well qualified for a role.