Sadiq Khan spent £200,000 of taxpayers' money on Pride events last year, according to recently released figures. London Pride, the annual LGBTQ+ festival, received a £125,000 grant, while other events received substantial sums, data from Freedom of Information requests shows.
The organisers of Black Pride, a festival for LGBTQ+ people of African heritage, received £30,000, £18,514 was spent on the “Mayor's Pride reception”, and another £25,200 was spent on City Hall's participation in the London Pride parade, which included a float, dressing, security and welfare.
Manchester's mayor Andy Burnham spent far less: £33,000 on Manchester Pride and £900 on entry to the Pride parade. Both mayors gave £2,575 to pro-transgender rights charity Stonewall for its “Diversity Champions” programme.
Several police forces also spent more than £10,000 funding and participating in Pride events, with grants of up to £2,000 given towards organising Pride rallies. West Midlands Police spent £328 on “Policing with Pride” t-shirts and £83 on flags and stickers, while British Transport Police spent £300 on a Pride Month workshop.
Whitehall departments spent thousands on Pride events, with the Cabinet Office spending £7,395 so that 750 civil servants could take part in 27 Pride events. The Ministry of Defence spent almost £700 on 65 Pride t-shirts for civil servants to wear on the London Pride parade.
William Yarwood of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: “Taxpayers are sick to the back teeth of spending on woke events.” A spokesman for the Mayor of London defended the spending, saying: “London's Pride is the largest LGBTQI+ event and parade in the country, bringing more than 1.5 million people together and showing why our capital is a global beacon of openness and inclusion.”
