An official Foreign Office calendar for British diplomats marks 110 awareness dates covering gender identity and wellbeing but fails to include Remembrance Sunday.
The 2026 internal document, marked "official" and obtained by the Daily Mail, also leaves off D-Day and VE Day. Remembrance Day on November 11 to honour members of the armed forces who sacrificed their lives for Britain is noted in the planner.
Mandarins are instead reminded to mark Flexible Working Day, International Pronouns Day, and the anniversary of George Floyd's death. The guidance features six commemorations for transgender and intersex people, comprising four trans observance days and two intersex days, alongside 20 days dedicated to mental health and neurodiverse conditions such as autism and ADHD.
Criticism from the opposition
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Charlie Dewhirst criticised the guidance last night, saying: "It's a calendar of niche awareness days with pronoun days and identity politics."
Dewhirst added: "No one knows what half this stuff means, but the lanyard class has made sure it fills officials' calendars."
The total of 110 awareness days, weeks and months recognised by the Foreign Office far outstrips other Whitehall departments. By comparison, the Cabinet Office recognised 21 awareness days, weeks and months in 2025. The Department for Education marked 25, the Home Office 12, and the Wales Office none.
National remembrance commemorations
Remembrance Sunday will be marked at The Cenotaph on Whitehall, London, on Sunday. The annual national service honours British and Commonwealth service personnel who lost their lives in war, bringing together members of the royal family, political leaders and military veterans at the Whitehall monument.
D-Day and VE Day commemorate major Second World War milestones, marking the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944 and the end of the conflict in Europe in May 1945. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is the British government department responsible for overseas diplomacy and foreign relations.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The FCDO has supported national remembrance commemorations for several decades."
