Scale of Labour’s ‘pointless spending’ on diversity staff revealed | Politics | News
Millions of pounds are being spend on DEI roles on Starmer and Reeves’s watch (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has been urged to halt the “pointless spending” of taxpayers’ cash on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) staff. Just five Government departments have spent more than £2.6million on roles critics say result in worse public services and should be scrapped.
At the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the equivalent of approximately 14 staff work on these issues, costing the taxpayer £1,121,565. The figures were obtained by former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe – who has launched his own political party, Restore Britain – who has called for diversity roles to be scrapped and supports a “vastly reduced public sector”.
Andrew Western, a junior minister at the DWP, defended the spending, saying the staff supported vulnerable customers. He claimed the initiatives can “help prevent issues related to discrimination or exclusion, reducing grievances and costly disputes”.
But Fred de Fossard of the Prosperity Institute said: “Spending on DEI staff and initiatives is out of control in Whitehall, and taxpayers are suffering the cost: worse public services, Government waste and a bureaucracy which seems to dislike the British people. Unless the Equality Act and its public sector equality duty are removed from the statue book, this will continue, and taxpayers will be worse off. Anyone serious about cutting this spending must commit to repealing the Equality Act 2010.”
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The findings were obtained by Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe (Image: Adam Gerrard / Daily Express)
Iain Mansfield, director of research at the influential Policy Exchange think tank, said the Government “should not be paying civil servants to promote politicised ideologies”.
In the Home Office, the equivalent of 16 full-time staff work on EDI at a cost of nearly £918,350.
Callum Price of the Institute of Economic Affairs said: “These positions add bureaucratic weight to an already unproductive public sector without delivering meaningful value to frontline services or economic growth. However, the real culprit is the Equalities Act itself, which has created a compliance industry that diverts resources away from core government functions.
“Until we address the underlying legislation driving this expansion, taxpayers will continue bearing the burden.”
Six people work at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on these topics with their salaries totalling nearly £302,930.
Alex Burghart has condemned ‘ideological box-ticking’ (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Callum McGoldrick, investigations campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers will be horrified that this wasteful and pointless spending is continuing, despite no evidence ever being provided that these roles contribute anything to the performance or output of the public sector. These nonsense, navel-gazing roles may offer a handsome pay packet to the lucky employees who occupy them, but they slow down Whitehall with endless reporting requirements and other laborious tasks.
“Ministers should be scrapping all of these roles, no exceptions.”
At the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, “fewer than five” staff work on EDI at a cost of at least £163,800.
Alex Burghart, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “At a time when families are tightening their belts, Whitehall is spending millions on ever-expanding EDI bureaucracy.
“Labour should have continued the previous Conservative Government’s crackdown on excessive EDI spending and focused on delivering efficient, transparent governance for hard-working taxpayers, not indulging in virtue-signalling and ideological box-ticking.”
At the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, no more than five work in this area with salary costs of almost £135,155.
Reform UK’s Danny Kruger says: ‘The fact that taxpayers are paying nearly £1 million for civil servants whose sole focus is DEI proves there is far too much emphasis in Whitehall on ticking ideological boxes rather than delivering for the public. These are exactly the kinds of roles Reform UK would eliminate as part of our plan to slim down the Civil Service and reprioritise spending towards services that actually matter to hard-working families.’
A Government spokesperson said: “These staff ensure we can open up opportunities across the country, and our workforce remains productive and focused at work.”
