Cut £7bn spending on woke projects, MPs tell Chancellor

JEREMY HUNT faces a rebellion from 40 Tory MPs over £7billion of government spending on woke projects.

The MPs have written to the Chancellor demanding that spending be cut on equality and diversity measures and grants to charities and quangos in order to reduce taxes.

Their letter criticises Mr Hunt’s decision 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”.

It comes ahead of the publication of a report by the Conservative Way Forward group tomorrow that will claim that £7billion of public money is spent each year on “politically motivated and divisive activities”.

The group’s research is based on an audit of government accounts and Freedom of Information requests to 6,000 public bodies, and will point to spending on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives in government, arm’s-length organisations and contractors, including the company building HS2.

EDI jobs in the public sector cost the taxpayer £557million a year, it will claim, while billions are spent on diversity initiatives by quangos including on contributions to a campaign on “unlearning whiteness” by the publicly funded Arts Council.

The letter, whose signatories include David Davis, Sir Jake Berry, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey, said: “We need to reassure our constituents that every penny of taxpayers’ money spent on their behalf provides value for money. We will have a much better chance of cutting taxes if we end this sort of waste.”

Whitehall sources last night said Mr Hunt would consider the report’s findings for his efficiency review. The Chancellor said he is “very concerned” about the tax burden but stressed that cutting inflation was his priority.