Armed Forces’ outlay on diversity staff reaches £2m

THE Armed Forces’ spending on diversity and inclusion personnel has doubled to nearly £2 million over the past five years, The Telegraph can reveal.

The total salaries of employees working full-time on diversity soared from £900,000 in 2019 to £1.98million in 2023, according to data disclosed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) under freedom of information (FOI) laws.

The revelations come as Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, begins a review of “woke” and “extremist culture” in the MOD following a Telegraph investigation.

He held crisis talks with military chiefs on Sunday after it emerged that officials had proposed easing security clearance requirements for recruits from overseas to boost diversity.

The proposals form part of a broader MOD diversity push that has caused alarm among former defence chiefs.

The FOI data show the number of military personnel working solely on diversity and inclusion more than doubled from 20 at the start of 2019 to 50 in 2023. The figures are rounded to the nearest 10 under FOI disclosure rules, meaning the true number could be even higher.

A total of more than £7 million has been spent on the salaries of diversity and inclusion personnel since 2019, excluding national insurance and pension costs.

In 2023, the Royal Air Force was the largest spender on salaries despite being the smallest of the three services.

The RAF spent £797,000 in 2023, up 236 per cent from £237,000 in 2019, compared to the Army’s 171 per cent increase from £380,000 to £767,000 over the same period.

The Royal Navy’s £423,000 outlay was only marginally higher than the £380k it spent in 2019.

The RAF has 35,730 serving personnel, whereas the Royal Navy has 37,960 and the Army has 111,170.

Last year, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton was forced to apologise for an RAF diversity drive that discriminated against white men.

One serving RAF officer, speaking anonymously, told “The amount of mandatory training I do on stupid s--- is painful.”