UK police forces spend more than £10MILLION on DEI jobs - enough to hire 354 officers to patrol our streets

West Yorkshire and Thames Valley are the biggest spenders on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) both surpassing £1million.

And two posts in Kent and Thames Valley are raking in wages of more than £100,000.

The sums come as police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, ask the Government for more money.

Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley said: "This waste of tax payer money is criminal, driven by a deeply flawed and prejudicial ideology.

"Huge credit to Cumbria Police who, by wasting no money on this nonsense, prove that these astronomical sums of money need not be spent on DEI, and should be channelled instead into fighting crime and delivering a service to victims."

The latest figures come from a GB News Freedom of Information request to every police force in the England.

We asked how many DEI posts they had, what the cost of these are and how much was spent on training.

A total of £9,374,457.30 is being spent on wages and another £910,852 on courses, amounting to £10,285,309.

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The cost would be able to fund 354 police officers as they have a starting salary for £29,000.

Salaries were provided in bands and GB News has calculated the total amount based on the maximum wage.

West Yorkshire Police has 19 members of diversity staff, costing £1,069,188. It spent £361,000 on courses.

Thames Valley has 17 amounting to £1,085,170 on wages.

One of those employed is a Diversity & Inclusion Superintendent who rakes in a cool £131,015 a year - more than head of counter terrorism in the Met Police, Commander Dominic Murphy, who is believed to be on a salary of £129,600.

And in Kent, the force hires a Chief Inspector Positive Action Lead who takes home £106,248.

However, there was some hope for anti-woke campaigners, as Cumbria had no occupations or spend on diversity training.

In April the Government announced a pledge to add 13,000 more neighbourhood bobbies on the beat.

This week Sir Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, led other leaders from forces across the country including Merseyside, Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire in a letter to Sir Keir Starmer.

They warned without more investment in the upcoming spending review they would be unable to deliver the Government's flagship pledges on crime such as halving knife crime and violence against women.