Despite Labour's promises to crack down on wasteful spending, Whitehall departments are still splurging millions of pounds on 'woke' diversity jobs, a Daily Mail audit has found. The Home Office, which is on the frontline of tackling the Channel migrant crisis, employed 18 officials primarily focused on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives at the start of the year, with combined salaries of £918,348—an average of £51,000 each.
Department for Work and Pensions Leads in EDI Spending
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had the highest bill, spending £1.12 million on 15 EDI roles, each earning an average of £73,000. This comes as the department is tasked with reducing Britain's bloated benefits bill. Meanwhile, HS2, overseen by the Department for Transport, spent nearly £500,000 on seven EDI roles, with the highest-paid official earning up to £92,000. As part of its EDI drive, HS2 also participated in last year's Birmingham Pride March at a cost of £750.
Other Departments Also Spending Heavily
The Environment Department employed six EDI staff at a cost of £302,927, while the Education Department spent up to £202,000. The Housing Department spent £135,000, and the Energy Department £183,500. These figures only include salaries at the start of the year and exclude spending on activities such as learning and development sessions, events, and membership of equalities organisations.
Separate figures show the Education Department spent £190,000 on diversity and inclusion learning and development courses in 2024, the Housing Department spent £47,272, and the DWP spent £69,000. The Business and Justice Departments and the Attorney General's Office each spent £2,000.
Criticism of EDI Roles
EDI staff are supposed to ensure diversity in the Civil Service but have been criticised for promoting unproven claims on gender and race, such as contested theories about a spectrum of genders and microaggressions. Gender-critical feminists also claim these roles make them reluctant to speak openly about transgender issues.
John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It's beyond infuriating that some of our most important departments, handling the most pressing issues we are facing, are continuing to waste whopping sums on woke nonsense. Despite the crisis on our borders and in our benefits system, Britain's bureaucrats are consumed by navel-gazing and box ticking.'
Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Tory Common Sense group of MPs, added: 'Equality and diversity has long been used as a front for all kinds of weird woke prejudices. At best, these civil service jobs are a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned money. At worst, they risk perpetuating stupid, spiteful and sinister dogma.'
Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe, who submitted the parliamentary questions that uncovered much of the spending, said most EDI jobs are a waste of taxpayers' money and 'need to be extracted from the public sector'.
Pride Event Spending
Separate figures obtained by the Mail show Whitehall departments spent thousands on Pride events last year. The Cabinet Office spent £7,395 so 750 civil servants could take part in 27 Pride events, mostly during Pride month in June 2025.
An internal report by the Cabinet Office in May last year revealed there were 380 EDI staff in Whitehall departments and associated quangos earning an average of £53,000 in 2022/23. Labour later promised to cut around 50,000 Civil Service posts—one in ten—to reduce Whitehall to pre-Brexit levels. However, in September, the Civil Service headcount hit 554,000, compared to 384,000 just before the 2016 Brexit referendum.
All departments were contacted for comment. HS2 said its seven EDI roles were not full-time and that each staff member was partially responsible for EDI initiatives. A spokesman for HS2 said: 'Any staff with a remit for EDI carry out a range of additional responsibilities including performance management, learning and development, and creating skills, employment and educational opportunities in the supply chain.'
