Woke Whitehall jobs ‘cost the taxpayer £7 million’ as 166 officials work in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion roles
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Millions of pounds in taxpayers’ cash is being spent on ‘woke’ public sector jobs in Whitehall, it can be revealed.
Some 166 officials are working in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) roles or have equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT and race in their job titles.
They include 51 staff at NHS England and 28 officials at the Cabinet Office – which is currently auditing all diversity spending within Whitehall as part of a crackdown on wasted cash.
With an average UK public sector salary of £42,500, it means the roles could be costing the taxpayers as much as £7million a year.
The Government was last night urged to scrap the roles by MPs who slammed them as an ‘utter waste of taxpayers cash’.
Whitehall, HM Treasury Building at the Corner of Parliament Square and Parliament Street
Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith (pictured) told The Mail ‘Brits are fed up of civil servants wasting their money’
Tory MP Brendan Clarke-Smith told The Mail ‘Brits are fed up of civil servants wasting their money.
‘Breaking glass ceilings is everyone’s responsibility, so there is no good reason why departments need so many equality and diversity jobs.
‘The Chancellor is right to root out these roles and focus on public sector productivity in Whitehall and beyond.’
Former Tory minister Jonathan Gullis MP called for the roles to be abolished immediately.
He said: ‘What a complete and utter waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
‘These pointless EDI roles just add additional layers onto already existing HR departments, and being no benefit other than to impose woke warriors nonsensical views upon everyone else. We should immediately abolish all such roles.’
The figures were revealed as part of written responses to a series of departmental questions asked by MPs.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asked the Cabinet Office to carry out audit into all EDI spending and activity across the Civil Service last year but the results are yet to be published.
A Government spokesperson said: ‘As set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government is considering a presumption against external equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) spending in the Civil Service, as well as a review of EDI spending.
‘This review is under way and the Government will report back in due course.’
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