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Britain's biggest police force is to spend a staggering £5.2 million a year on employing 64 diversity staff, despite paring frontline services to the bone, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The Metropolitan Police is committed to expanding its woke workforce despite slashing thousands of officers' jobs as it grapples with a £250 million funding gap, according to data exclusively obtained by this newspaper under a Freedom of Information request.
The document also reveals the mind-boggling array of inclusivity projects in the force.
Among 63 events celebrated on a 'diversity calendar' are International Pronouns Day, Pansexual and Panromantic Awareness Day, Be Kind To Humankind Week and National Tsunami Awareness Week.
There are also 47 staff support networks including the Bisexual Support Group, the He For She gender equality movement, and the Borderline Personality Disorder network, as well as 19 associations for various ethnicities – including Ibero-American, Polish, Italian, Slavic and Romanian – and support for followers of every major religion.
The revelations come after the MoS revealed that Britain's public sector is splurging £70 million a year on woke equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) officers as frontline services are stretched to breaking point.
Our analysis of the diversity gravy train found the NHS alone spends £40million on EDI jobs each year, despite the waiting list standing at 7.4million.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, has said that the force would lose 3,300 police officers in 2025 and 2026 and close ten more police station front counters.
Susan Hall, the Conservative group leader on the London Assembly, raged: 'This is the stuff of absolute wokery, it's just too nonsensical for words.
'All we want is for police officers to do their job not worry about Tsunami Week.'
And Reform MP Lee Anderson said: 'Diversity shouldn't matter. What matters is competence, efficiency, and keeping the public safe.
'Your race or religion is irrelevant. The Met Police used to be taken seriously. Now their priorities have shifted from fighting crime to funding diversity departments and closing stations to pay for them.'
Scotland Yard is currently advertising for two 'life events delivery managers' on £47,000 a year. One will help parents find a good work-life balance, while the other will aid staff with disabilities and neurodivergent conditions. Both roles are based in Kilburn, where the local police station closed its front counter to the public in 2017.
William Yarwood of the TaxPayers' Alliance called on the Met to 'scrap the gimmicks and get back to basics'.
He said: 'It's staggering that while Londoners are seeing stations shut and frontline police services cut, the Met still finds millions to bankroll a sprawling diversity bureaucracy.
'Taxpayers expect bobbies on the beat, not endless networks, awareness weeks and "life event" managers.'
The Met currently spends £3.2million on posts in its Culture Diversity and Inclusion Unit, which will rise to £5.2million once all current vacancies are filled.
And the force conceded: 'This does not include any other posts that may lead or be involved in DEI related activity across other business areas in the Met.'
Half of Met's mounted officers face losing their jobs in cost-cutting drive
Mounted Met Police officers face an anxious wait to find out if they will keep their jobs in the historic branch.
The Met is about to axe close to half of its mounted division to help the force shrink its £260 million debt – and officers expect to learn in the next few weeks who will be redeployed elsewhere.
One told The Mail on Sunday: 'A lot of us are expecting to find out in the next few days whether or not we get to keep our jobs within this division.'
Last night, the Met Police said 'discussions are ongoing' with trade unions, but confirmed that it was making 'tough choices'.
It will cut the number of horses from 93 to 40 and axe 69 out of 120 police officers and ten out of 32 support staff roles.
Five of the seven stable blocks at the mounted branch's Surrey base will be closed, with horses redeployed to other forces, retired or rehomed.
The Met insists the officers and civilian staff are being supported, adding that they will be redeployed, not made redundant.
A spokesman said that reductions to the mounted branch had always been part of its proposals, adding: 'We are prioritising resources and putting more officers on the beat in the busiest parts of London.
'The Met continues to have the largest mounted branch in the UK, who will focus on policing high-crime areas and high-profile public order and ceremonial events.'
It is not known how much money will be saved by the cuts to the mounted branch as no recent figures have been disclosed.
In 2017 a Freedom of Information request showed that the budget for the Met's mounted division was over £13 million. Data from 2016 shows the annual cost for each police horse was £5,558.
Earlier this year the Met announced it will have to lose 1,700 officers, PCSOs and staff and axe several services, including the Royal Parks police and officers in schools.
Forensics and historical crime teams also face cuts, and station front-counter opening times could also be reduced.
Extra funding from central government and from the London mayor means that the Met avoided the worst-case scenario of 'eye watering cuts' that could have seen the loss of 2,300 officers.
The mounted branch was formed in 1763 to combat highwaymen and became famous for its role in escorting royal events and for its deployment at football matches and protests.
Each horse undergoes six months of training to get used to noise, while officers complete a demanding 20-week riding course.