The Royal Navy has lavished £2.4 million on designated diversity and inclusion staff in recent years, despite severe constraints on defence budgets. The Mail has the details.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps is waging war on what he sees as “woke” and wasteful diversity pushes, including internal jobs inviting serving marines and sailors to be redeployed as diversity and inclusion officers within Britain’s navy.
But his parliamentary under-secretary has admitted to spending the seven figure sum on diversity roles in the service since 2019 – prompting disbelief from a former minister who has called for the money to be spent elsewhere.
Ex-Armed Forces Minister Mark Francois has called for Mr. Shapps to ensure Britain’s military is spending its money on “weaponry, not wokery” – amid concerns the country is on a pre-war footing with Russia.
Conservative MP Mr. Francois, who also sits on the Commons Defence Select Committee, expressed concern at the spending, which was revealed through a parliamentary response to Tory MP Sir John Hayes. …
The figure on diversity spending came from an answer to a parliamentary question given by Defence Under-Secretary Andrew Murrison to Mr. Hayes, who has exposed much of the workings of the military’s push for diversity.
The Navy had spent £2,445,980 on salaries for people employed in “dedicated diversity and inclusion policy roles from 2019 to 2023”, Mr. Murrison said. …
Mr. Hayes has also unearthed other details of the MoD’s spending on diversity campaigns, with a total of £1.5 million spent on “ethnic minority and women campaigns and initiatives” between 2019 and 2022.
As of February, the Navy had 15 people recruited in roles dedicated to diversity and inclusion, with another 13 in the Army and 14 in the RAF, with 10 other positions open for recruitment. …
The Royal Navy itself says it promotes an “inclusive culture” that encourages people to join up regardless of their gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Guidance published in 2022 suggests each unit within the Navy has a dedicated diversity and inclusion lead, generally the second-in-command, with other soldiers encouraged to become “practitioners“, “advisors” or less formal “associates”.
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