Sadiq Khan to spend more than £2.5m on TfL diversity training
Desk report: Sadiq Khan is set to spend more than £2.5 million on a new Transport for London diversity training programme.
The Mayor of London is launching a four-year push to embed an “inclusive culture” across Transport for London (TfL), Crossrail and the Department for Transport and is advertising for a contractor to run the training.
The £2.77 million contract runs until 2028 and will extend to equality, diversity and inclusion programmes across the London fire service and the Metropolitan Police.
Unconscious bias training was scrapped at central government level four years ago after an official review found the courses did not change behaviour or improve workplace equality.
But Mr Khan has continued to press ahead with schemes aimed at boosting diversity in the workplace and reducing “microaggressions”.
The advert on the Cabinet Office website reads: “TfL is seeking to establish a framework to deliver equality, diversity and inclusion training to staff and other organisations to help TfL address inequalities, embed an inclusive culture, and put people, customers and colleagues at the heart of decisions and changes that are made at TfL.”
Richard Tice, the Reform deputy leader and MP for Boston and Skegness, said: “This is just a staggering, inappropriate waste of money.
“All diversity and inclusion training should be scrapped, as should the Equality Act 2010. This waste is destroying productivity across the whole public sector.”
Escalation of spending
It emerged earlier this year that the policing office run by the Labour mayor is spending up to £25,000 on “anti-racism allyship” training for members of the Met scrutiny board.
TfL sources said each organisation would pay for the training it received and there was no commitment to spend the full amount.
A TfL spokesman said: “This training will support tens of thousands of staff across several organisations, including the Met Police, the Department of Transport and other Greater London Authority bodies for four years.
It came as new analysis by the City Hall Conservatives found the demands Mr Khan has made of the Labour Government add up to £25 billion.
Despite his existing budget of £21 billion a year, the group noted the mayor’s requests during his re-election campaign in May included 1,300 police officers, frozen TfL fares, 40,000 new council homes and permanent free school meals.
Neil Garratt, a member of the London Assembly, said: “The vast majority of the manifesto commitments Sadiq Khan was re-elected on depended on a Labour government being elected.
“Will Rachel Reeves now give in and fund the mayor’s demands with £25 billion of additional borrowing?
“We welcome long-term investment in our city but Londoners should not forget that mayor Khan already has a £21 billion annual budget that he has not spent prudently.”
A spokesman for Mr Khan said the City Hall Tories figures were “misleading nonsense”.