Middle-class white men have been banned from a taxpayer-funded internship in a case of ‘blatant discrimination’.

The National Audit Office (NAO), a publicly-funded Government spending watchdog, said only applicants who were female, of black heritage or from lower socio-economic backgrounds could apply for its diversity internship this summer.

In a job advert the watchdog said its six-week scheme aimed to ‘support diverse talent’ in accounting and was open to penultimate-year undergraduates studying any degree.

Successful applicants will join the NAO’s Newcastle office later this month, receiving a pro-rated salary of £25,089.

They will support audit projects, learn from ‘experienced colleagues’ and have the opportunity to build their ‘professional network’.

Applications closed in February after the NAO said it had received an ‘exceptionally high number’ of submissions.

Reform UK’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf branded the scheme’s criteria ‘blatant discrimination’ and said opportunities ‘should be awarded on merit’.

‘This is anti-white, anti-merit ideology masquerading as diversity and inclusion,’ he said.

Claire Coutinho, the Conservative shadow equalities minister, said ‘identity politics’ would ‘only make us more divided’.

She added: ‘We should all be judged by the content of our character and not protected characteristics.’

Last year the NAO ran a similar scheme, promising interns the opportunity to shadow auditors, undertake ‘crucial research and fieldwork’ for the NAO’s audits and investigations and gain access to training courses on government and assurance.

The eight-week internship in 2025 also demanded that applicants fulfil one or more of the three diversity criteria it published for this year’s scheme.

It offered a pro-rated salary of over £24,000 for the Newcastle office and over £27,000 to work in London. 

Other public bodies have excluded applicants based on race or class, including a civil service scheme which the Government announced last summer would only be available to working class students.

In the revamped programme, running for the first time this year, children of plumbers, receptionists and van drivers were among those eligible.

Ministers hoped the change would lead to more working class applicants getting a place on the Fast Stream – the main graduate programme for the civil service.

Those who complete the internship can access a ‘fast pass’ for the graduate scheme, allowing them to bypass the initial application stages.

At the time Ms Coutinho told the Mail: ‘The civil service will decide who will get the opportunity of an internship based on whether they deem their parents’ occupation worthy – handing out opportunity based on something completely out of a young person’s control.

‘We used to call that discrimination, but under these new civil service rules it will be called “progress”.’

Britain’s intelligence services also run a paid summer internship scheme which bans white participants.

Programmes for MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are only open to young people from black, Asian, mixed heritage or ethnic minority backgrounds and socially or economically disadvantaged upbringings.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, described the requirements as ‘racist’.

Companies and public authorities are allowed to take ‘positive action’ under the Equality Act 2010 to ‘address disadvantage or under-representation’.

The employer must demonstrate that the action is ‘proportionate’ to address the issue of ‘under-representation’ for it to be legal.

An NAO spokesman said: ‘Our long-running diversity internship schemes offer valuable work experience in the audit sector.

‘The internship opens doors to people who are under-represented in the sector including anyone from less affluent backgrounds.’