'It has to be ditched!' Nigel Farage's call to scrap DEI backed by Ben Habib: 'It's a divisive pernicious policy'

Outlining Reform's plans to "scrap the DEI agenda", Farage claimed it is "costing the taxpayer up to £7billion a year throughout the public sector".

Accepting the plans are "expensive", Farage insisted they can "make big savings" on DEI by closing all asylum hotels and getting rid of the net zero target.

Discussing the move on GB News, Chairman of the Great British Political Action Committee Ben Habib said that we "can't quantify the damage done by DEI".

Habib fumed: "The damage is manifold, and it's not just in the direct cost of employing people to enforce DEI.

"The real cost is in progressive discrimination of people into jobs and positions which they shouldn't hold because they're not the best at it."

Hitting out at the Government's push for DEI schemes, Habib claimed: "What we're doing is setting aside meritocracy in favour of progressive discrimination. And that has a massive, unquantifiable cost for the country."

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Noting Farage's claim that the cost on the taxpayer is "£7bn", Habib suggested that the cost is "much, much bigger".

He told GB News: "DEI is a fundamentally divisive, pernicious Government policy that has to be ditched.

"People are not going to pay for tax because they're not going to pay for it increasing by 40 per cent, the tax threshold. You can't quantify it."

He added: "The damage done by it is vast, and so if you were to remove it there's bound to be upside.

He added: "It's a bit like ditching net zero again. Nigel Farage quantified DEI as £7bn a year and he quantified net zero is £40bn a year.

"But actually the money will be much, much bigger."

In a scathing attack on Starmer, Farage declared: "What does Starmer know about people getting up at 5am to go to work, pay their taxes and still not have enough to pay the bills?

"While a family next door to them doesn’t work and has more money in their pocket. It’s not right or fair. Reform will always support working people and not turn their backs on them."