'Total insult': Woke row erupts after Bank of England spent £650k on 'nonsense' equality roles

Although the BoE did not break down the exact fees, the request found the bank spent £645,424 a year.

Two years ago, a similar freedom of information request found that the bank spent nearly £27,000 on diversity consultants.

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These roles were created to prevent minority employees from being held back by “microaggressions” and “unconscious bias”.

Reform UK candidate, Mark Hoath, told GB News: “This is completely unacceptable. The Bank of England's primary goal is to maintain inflation at 2 per cent which they’ve fundamentally failed to do.”

He added: “This is another example of public money being wasted on diversity training although not on the scale of the ‘underfunded’ NHS who waste £14million on this nonsense.

“Clearly the Bank of England have once again got their priorities wrong and feel it’s appropriate in a cost of living crisis to waste thousands of pounds on this divisive content.”

Former Brexit party MEP and Reform UK’s Business spokesman, Rupert Lowe, added on social media: “Why is the Bank of England spending £645,424 a year on diversity, equity and inclusion hires?

“Honestly, how on earth do these people justify their salaries?

“It's a total insult. How has it gone this far?

“All of these roles should be scrapped - with [Andrew] Bailey turfed out too.”

Governor of the BoE Andrew Bailey has previously been accused of “going for woke” rather than concentrating on his “day job”.

However, hitting back against the claims, Bailey said: “I really have no time for getting into the woke debate, whatever woke means.”

In a statement, a BoE spokesperson told GB News: “These roles help us to build a more diverse and inclusive workforce, ensuring the Bank’s 5,000 employees are better able to deliver against our mission to maintain monetary and financial stability across the UK.”

In August earlier this year, the Bank of England was accused of going woke after donating almost £10,000 to Stonewall, according to a Mail on Sunday probe.

Tory peer Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne told the Mail on Sunday that the Bank needed to focus more on the job at hand rather than identity politics.

“The top priority is the hefty squeeze on family incomes,” she said.

“The Conservative leadership campaign debates focus on inflation, while the Bank of England issues dire warnings of financial collapse.

“The trivial mutterings of inept Stonewall are irrelevant to the reality families face with a coming global financial crisis.”

Speaking on the latest diversity roles, Lowe continued to tell the Telegraph: “The Bank of England, led by the incompetent Andrew Bailey, has utterly and objectively failed in its core mission of controlling inflation.

“Instead of a laser focus on maintaining monetary and financial stability, they have indulged in woke nonsense that would not look out of place in a students’ union.

“These diversity roles serve no useful purpose, in fact they actively disrupt the work of staff with purpose. Perhaps in the Bank’s case, that is no bad thing.

“We need serious people in charge at the Bank, not naive fools who don’t understand the consequences of relentless money-printing to fund unaffordable policies such as lockdowns.

“They should stand aside for qualified men and women who understand both basic biology and economics.”