Quango splurges £100 million of taxpayers’ cash on studies about topics like microaggressions and unconscious bias
A CONTROVERSIAL quango has been accused of “grotesque waste” after doling out £100 million of taxpayers’ cash on woke studies about “microaggressions”.
UK Research and Innovation controls a massive £8 billion budget to pay for studies which will boost the economy.
But it has splurged vast amounts of cash on 600 woke research projects, research by Conservative Way Forward has found.
It includes studies on topics like “reparations”, “decolonisation”, “unconscious bias” and “microaggressions”.
Senior Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg fumed: “UKRI seems to have no proper control over its use of taxpayers’ money.
“Its objective is to promote science and innovation not squandering money on the latest woke shibboleths.
“It is an expensive and clearly wasteful quango that needs to come under tighter ministerial direction.”
Tory MP Philip Davies branded the cash a “grotesque waste of government money”.
He added: “The government should close down any quango which wastes money like this and ensure that all taxpayer money is spent on delivering a service to the public – not on politically correct claptrap like this”
Earlier this year, a government-review found UKRI has failed to achieve “efficiencies”.
The revelations come after Labour frontbencher Ed Miliband sparked massive controversy by suggesting Britain should pay “reparations” to poor countries for climate change.
A UKRI spokeswoman said: “UKRI carefully targets the investment of £8bn in tax payers’ money each year in a diverse portfolio of activity that fuels the UK’s world-class research and innovation endeavour.”
The research “improves lives across the UK”, they added.