ROBIN DICKSON is right to question the insistence that all Labour candidates wishing to succeed Hugh Bayley must be female (Letters, December 15).

This is not the way to pursue diversity or inclusion.

This is a way to create disharmony and resentment.

Positive discrimination is a manifestation of prejudice against the mainstream population.

Moreover, it devalues the position gained by the successful candidate, who is always open to the accusation that they would not be in post but for manipulated favourable consideration.

What will come next?

Will Big Brother in Labour be telling local parties that future candidates must not only be female but also disabled, from an ethnic background other than Anglo-Saxon or Celtic; and definitely not heterosexual?

Matthew Laverack, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.