Daily Mail: BBC criticised for spending over £600,000 on 'inclusivity' staff

Story from Daily Mail:

The BBC has been slammed after it emerged it is spending more than £600,000 a year on staff responsible for 'diversity and inclusion'.

The corporation employs 15 members of staff in roles which relate to 'diversity, equity or inclusion' a Freedom of Information request found.

Some of these are part-time positions, meaning in total their jobs are equivalent to that of 13 people in full-time employment.

The BBC did not give a precise total for the cost but did provide salary ranges for the jobs. Based on these figures the lowest estimate for their total cost per year is £678,071 and the upper £1,116,796, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The positions include that of a 'creative diversity partner' paid between £50,481 and £85,470 per year - which sounds as though it could have been a role in mockumentary TV series W1A, which satirises management of the BBC. Actress Nina Sosanya played Lucy Freeman who was 'Head of Inclusivity' in the comedy.

Critics say the spending is an example of the corporation wasting licence fee payer money on 'woke nonsense'.

The BBC says it expects the production teams it works with 'to be at least 20 per cent diverse'.

It also wants 'at least two individuals in senior decision-making roles' on a production to 'be from one of the three under-represented groups: which include black or minority ethnic, disabled and working class.

Sir John Hayes, the Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings told The Mail: 'Given the BBC's patchy record it's about time it dropped all this stuff and concentrated on what the viewers and listeners really want which is high-quality programming.

'I think diversity and inclusivity sounds good in theory but in practice it's used as a vehicle for all kinds or horrors.'

Conservative MP Gareth Johnson added: 'It's so depressingly unsurprising from the BBC. They seem to be obsessed with wokeness rather than programme making.

'If the BBC spent a little more time concentrating on programme making and a little less time on being woke we would have better quality production from them.

'It's astonishing the BBC spends so much money on diversity yet still gets so much wrong over the Israel/Hamas conflict.'

Rupert Lowe, a spokesman for Reform UK, said: 'The BBC was founded on the noble principles of informing, educating and entertaining - it now achieves none of them.

'This is just another in a long line of failures, which demonstrate the broadcaster is no longer fit for purpose. It's time to defund the BBC, free the licence fee payer of their legal obligation to prop up this woke nonsense and let the public decide if they wish to financially support such a rotten monopoly.

'I suspect the answer will be a resounding no.' Toby Young, of the Free Speech Union, said: 'What 'diversity' means at the BBC is people that look different but all think the same way. It means a privately educated daughter of an African diplomat who is pro-Palestinian and anti-Brexit is much more likely to get a job than a white working-class man who voted Leave and wants to call Hamas a terrorist organisation.'

It comes after the corporation faced criticism over its decision to feature a transgender woman on its annual 100 Women list for 2023.

Critics claimed the decision to include activist Rukshana Kapali on the roll call of 'inspiring', 'influential' women rendered the list 'meaningless'.

Among the women from various fields named on this year's list were Michelle Obama and Amal Clooney.

Describing the 24-year-old Nepalese-born Kapali as a 'housing campaigner' and a 'transgender human rights activist', the BBC said she had 'embarked on her own path of self-education around the diversity of gender and sexuality' and had been 'vocal on social media on issues around queer rights'. well with women's rights activists and others.

But women's rights campaigners said her inclusion took away a place for a biological woman.

A BBC spokesman said: 'The BBC, just like most organisations, has staff working to ensure we reflect the diverse communities of the UK, both on and off screen.

'Diversity and inclusion is part of the BBC's public purposes as set out in its Charter. We will continue to deliver on our plans, balancing the need to attract and retain highly skilled staff while offering value for licence fee payers.'