Tory MP Tim Loughton talking sense this afternoon on Politics Live over the ludicrous sums wasted on diversity and inclusion officers across Whitehall:

“At a time when taxes are historically at a very high level, we are spending £427 million on equality, diversity, and inclusiveness staff. Some of whom I’m sure are doing a really good job. But the rest of them, are they really essential, are they really a priority, when we need more nurses, more train drivers… that’s what we are questioning.”

Conservative Way Forward have published a report on their investigation, although co-conspirators will already be familiar with the number of these roles that crop up every ten minutes in the public sector. Loughton is one of 40 MPs to have signed a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this morning calling for this waste to be rooted out once and for all. Inevitably, Zarah Sultana had to pretend scrapping this sort of thing was “classic Tory ‘divide and conquer.”

Read the full letter below:

“Dear Chancellor,

In the recent budget, the Government decided to tax the British public at levels not seen since the end of the Second World War, and to spend more public money in 2023 and 2024 than at any point since the mid-1970s.

We need to be able to reassure our constituents, who are worried about the cost of living crisis, that every penny of taxpayers’ money spent on their behalf provides value for money and is not wasted.

We would therefore like to draw your attention to a report by the Conservative Way Forward group: “Defunding Politically Motivated Campaigns: saving taxpayers billions by ending waste and division.” 

The report sets out £7bn in public expenditure that could be curtailed and returned to taxpayers, whilst at the same time ending government support for politically motivated and divisive activities.  We will have a much better chance of cutting taxes or spending more on frontline public services if we end this sort of waste. 

We hope that you will carefully analyse the recommendations in this report and, ahead of the next fiscal statement, provide us and our constituents with the reassurance they need that the government takes rooting out waste seriously.

Yours sincerely,

Greg Smith MP (Chair)

Sir Jake Berry MP

Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP

Sir Desmond Swayne MP

Sir Robert Syms MP

Rt Hon David Davis MP

Rt Hon Esther McVey MP

Lee Anderson MP

Scott Benton MP

Peter Bone MP

Ben Bradley MP

Andrew Bridgen MP

Alun Cairns MP

Miriam Cates MP

Brendan Clarke-Smith MP

Robert Courts MP

Philip Davies MP

Richard Drax MP

Nick Fletcher MP

James Grundy MP

Jonathan Gullis MP

Andrea Jenkyns MP

Pauline Latham OBE MP

Andrew Lewer MP

Dr Julian Lewis MP

Tim Loughton MP

Jonathan Lord MP

Craig Mackinlay MP

Damien Moore MP

Henry Smith MP

Derek Thomas MP

Bill Wiggin MP

+9 private Conservative MPs