Liz Truss, the minister for women and equalities, is reportedly keen to see government departments withdraw from Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ programme. The scheme, which around 250 departments and public bodies have signed up to, sees quangos and other public sector bodies pay for guidance on issues such as gender-neutral toilets, pronouns, and transgender inclusion.
Debates rage about the efficacy – or even legitimacy – of such programmes. But underpinning that discourse is the fact that huge sums of taxpayers’ money have been handed over to what are undoubtedly controversial campaigns.
As well as receiving cash for the Diversity Champions programme, new research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance shows that Stonewall also pocketed direct government funding. The organisation received at least £2.6 million in government grants between 2015 and 2019.
Huge sums of taxpayers’ money have been handed over to what are undoubtedly controversial campaigns
The lion’s share of the grant funding we know about came from the Department for Education, which gave Stonewall £934,424 between 2015 and 2019.
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