Whitehall blob still splurging millions of pounds on 'woke' diversity jobs despite Labour promises of a crackdown on waste, Mail audit finds

Published: 23:47, 3 May 2026 | Updated: 23:47, 3 May 2026 The Whitehall blob is still splurging millions of pounds on 'woke' diversity jobs despite Labour promises of a crackdown on waste. A Daily Mail audit found the Home Office was employing the most officials 'primarily focused' on promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives. The department on the front-line of tackling the Channel migrant crisis had 18 EDI staff on combined salaries of £918,348 at the start of the year - an average of £51,000 each. Meanwhile, the Work and Pensions department was splashing £1.12million on fifteen EDI roles - the biggest Whitehall bill. It means each official at the department, responsible for trying to reduce Britain's bloated benefits bill, is on average earning £73,000. HS2, overseen by the Department for Transport, was spending nearly £500,000 on seven EDI roles, with the highest-earning official on a salary of up to £92,000. As part of the high-speed rail project's EDI drive, it also took part in last year's Birmingham Pride March at a cost of £750. And the Environment department revealed six EDI staff were being employed at a cost of £302,927, while the Education department was spending up to £202,000. Labour ministers, including PM Sir Keir Starmer, pledged a crackdown on civil service waste but Whitehall departments are still splurging millions of pounds on ' woke ' diversity jobs  Rupert Lowe uncovered much of the spending on 'woke' EDI roles in Parliamentary written questions  Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Tory Common Sense group of MPs, said EDI roles were 'a waste of taxpayers' hard-earned money' The Housing department was splashing £135,000 and the Energy department £183,500. The figures only include the cost of salaries at the start of the year and not the amount spent on activities, including 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, while the Housing department spent £47,272. The Work and Pensions department spent £69,000 while the Business and Justice departments and Attorney General's Office all spent £2,000. While EDI staff are supposed to ensure diversity in the Civil Service, they have been criticised for promoting unproven claims on gender and race, such as contested theories that there is a spectrum of genders and that people can be guilty of microaggressions towards other people based on their race, gender or sexuality. Gender-critical feminists have also claimed it can make them reluctant to speak openly about their views on transgender issues. Most of the figures were supplied in parliamentary questions analysed by the Daily Mail, but some departments refused to give updates, meaning the real figures could be higher. 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. 'Yet despite the crisis on our borders and in our benefits system, Britain's bureaucrats are consumed by navel-gazing and box ticking. 'The DWP and Home Office should be focused on tackling Britain's bloated benefits bill and small boats rather than obsessing over EDI.' Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Tory Common Sense group of MPs, said: 'Equality and diversity has long been used as a front for all kinds of weird woke prejudices. 'Critical race theory' and 'white privilege' spring to mind. '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, said most EDI jobs were a waste of taxpayers' money and 'need to be extracted from the public sector'. His written questions asked each Department how many civil servants it employed 'primarily focused' on EDI initiatives, including 'transgender policy'. Separate figures obtained by the Mail also show Whitehall departments spent thousands of pounds on Pride jamborees last year. The Cabinet Office shelled out £7,395 so 750 civil servants could take part in 27 Pride events, mostly during Pride month in June 2025. It said its spending on Pride related to more than two dozen events that took place for staff across several Whitehall departments. In May last year, an internal report by the Cabinet Office, commissioned by the last Conservative government, revealed there were 380 EDI staff in Whitehall departments and associated quangos earning £53,000 a year on average in 2022/23. Labour later promised to cut around 50,000 Civil Service posts – one in ten – to reduce the size of Whitehall to pre-Brexit levels. However, in September the Civil Service headcount hit 554,000. Just before the historic Brexit referendum vote in 2016, it was 384,000. 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.' No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.