Reform UK councillor Darren Grimes has been widely criticised after falsely claiming that staff at Marks & Spencer are “forced” to wear pronoun badges at work – a statement quickly contradicted by employees, shoppers and the retailer itself.
The former GB News presenter, who is now a councillor in Durham, made the claim in posts shared on X and Facebook, where he suggested the retailer had imposed mandatory pronoun displays on staff name badges.
Grimes wrote that he had met a former colleague from Marks & Spencer who told him staff were now “all forced to wear their pronouns on their badges”, adding: “What on earth? Do they even know their own customers? Sign of the times.”
The claim rapidly gained attention online, but much of the response focused on its accuracy – or lack of it.
🛍️ Shoppers and staff dispute the claim
Within hours, social media users began directly challenging Grimes’ account, with several people describing visits to Marks & Spencer stores where no such requirement was visible.
One user said they deliberately checked staff badges while visiting an M&S café and food hall, reporting that multiple employees were wearing standard name badges with no pronouns displayed. Others echoed similar experiences in stores across the country, questioning where Grimes’ information had come from.
Another user described the claim as “another bare-faced lie”, while others accused the councillor of spreading misinformation to fuel culture-war outrage.
🏷️ What Marks & Spencer’s policy actually says
Marks & Spencer introduced optional pronoun badges in 2021, following a suggestion made by an employee through the company’s internal “Suggest to Steve” scheme, which allowed staff to submit ideas directly to senior leadership.
The retailer made clear at the time that participation was entirely voluntary and intended to help staff who wished to share their pronouns feel more comfortable and respected in the workplace. There has never been a requirement for employees to wear pronoun badges, nor any policy compelling staff to do so.
The initiative was welcomed by equality organisations, including Stonewall, which described the move as a simple step towards fostering inclusion at work.
A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer has consistently stated that pronoun badges are optional and employee-led, a position that has not changed since the policy was introduced.
🧾 Critics accuse Grimes of misleading followers
Given the well-documented voluntary nature of the policy, critics argued that Darren Grimes’ claim was either careless or deliberately misleading. Several commenters asked him to provide evidence beyond a second-hand anecdote, noting that the policy has been public knowledge for several years.
The episode also reignited criticism of how inclusion measures are often reframed online as compulsory “wokeness”, despite being optional in practice. Some users pointed out that similar claims have repeatedly been used to provoke outrage without factual grounding.
While Grimes’ post did generate engagement, many argued it did so by spreading a false impression of workplace policy, contributing to confusion rather than informed debate.
⚠️ A familiar pattern in culture-war rows
The backlash highlights a recurring pattern in online culture-war disputes, where voluntary initiatives are portrayed as coercive, often without evidence. In this case, multiple eyewitness accounts and the company’s own policy directly contradicted the claim that staff were being “forced” to display pronouns.
As one commenter put it: “Voluntary inclusion being falsely presented as compulsion – again.”
One response to “Darren Grimes mocked over false claim M&S staff are ‘forced’ to wear pronoun badges”
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Darren “craftyw@nk” Grimes is a well-known liar and was listed by Grok in the top ten misleading UK X accounts recently.
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