Civil servants working for the taxman has come under fire after holding a seminar on the ‘Guilt of Being British’.
Staff at HM Revenue and Customs were able to log-in remotely and attend the session during office hours on Wednesday, prompting a furious backlash.
The situation arises amid ongoing criticism of HMRC’s performance, with numerous taxpayer calls going unanswered every month, customers being quietly disconnected, and general concern from MPs regarding the inadequate phone service.
On Wednesday night, Kemi Badenoch called the session ‘nonsense’ and urged Whitehall staff to resign if they were not proud of Britain.
The Tory leader told the Mail: ‘Is it any surprise the public dreads dealing with HMRC, now that we find out staff are being encouraged to feel guilty about being British?’
‘While in government, I fought to eliminate all this nonsense from the Civil Service. Under my leadership, a Conservative government will ensure public bodies are proud of Britain, not ashamed of it.’
‘We’ll defend our history, not apologise for it. And if that offends the Civil Service’s seminar circuit, they’re welcome to go somewhere else.’
The hour-long ‘Guilt of Being British: Listening circle’ was run by the HMRC Race Network and held from 11am until midday.
Staff at HM Revenue and Customs were able to log-in remotely and attend the session during office hours on Wednesday, prompting a furious backlash
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized the HMRC session and challenged Whitehall aides to leave the civil service if they were not proud of Britain.
The session was advertised as ‘a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British,’ discussing topics such as ‘the emotional weight of colonial history’ as part of the taxman’s commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion.
According to a post published on the HMRC’s intranet, the session promised to ‘delve into themes of guilt, pride, and identity, offering space for personal stories and cultural insights’.
Workers were told participants would explore ‘the duality of identity – balancing heritage and belonging’, and the ’emotional weight of colonial history and inherited trauma’.
The internal advert said those attending would discover more about ‘career challenges faced by South Asian women – barriers, bias and expectations’, and learn how ‘storytelling and representation help reclaim our narratives.’
A dumbfounded Civil Service source told the Mail: ‘This example of a work-time staff event pushing a highly divisive anti-British narrative perfectly encapsulates the nightmare that is Civil Service staff networks.
‘Those focused on race and trans in particular seem to operate entirely without scrutiny, and attract large numbers of activist staff, intent on pushing their personal beliefs on their colleagues rather than identifying and tackling actual workplace issues.
‘This is a total abandonment of the vital principle of Civil Service political neutrality and makes a lot of us very uncomfortable, but if you challenge these groups on their approaches you risk putting a target on your back.
‘As is seen in this event, these networks also enable many people to treat the workplace like their personal therapy centres.
Former Cabinet Minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said he thought it was ‘peculiar that people who hate their country want to run it’
Tory leader Ms Badenoch said people should be ‘proud’ – not ‘ashamed’ – to be British, as thousands of patriots took part in events marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day. Pictured above, crowds waved Union flags in central London for the celebrations in May
‘So many of us are getting on with our jobs and we see colleagues holding listening circles to talk about personal traumas – it fosters resentment and damages public trust.’
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Tory Cabinet Minister, added: ‘It is peculiar that people who hate their country want to run it.
‘Perhaps I should offer a course on why being British is to win first prize in the lottery of life.’
Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers are fed up of bankrolling woke staff networks.
‘While HMRC quangocrats sit around in circles whining about colonialism, hard-working Brits are being left on hold for hours on end.
‘Staff networks should not be funded by taxpayers and they certainly shouldn’t be happening during working hours.’
It is not known how many of HMRC’s more than 60,000 staff attended the remote event. A spokesman for the taxman said it would have been less than 0.1% and had no impact on its call handling ability.
Earlier this year a report by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee found HMRC answered just 66.4 per cent of customers’ attempts to speak to an adviser, well below the target of 85 per cent. It said performance reached ‘an all-time low’.
HMRC has come under fire from MPs for its woeful record. But the department’s most recent monthly performance report shows signs of improvement
A sea of Union flags fluttered in front of Buckingham Palace for the 80th anniversary of VE Day earlier this year
Around 40,000 customers were cut off in the year 2023-24 if they were waiting for more than 70 minutes, without an explanation, and no callback option was available.
The average call wait time exceeded 23 minutes, with HMRC saying it did not have adequate resources to meet telephone demand from customers.
The report said: ‘HMRC’s already poor service to taxpayers has become even worse.
‘The PAC is concerned that HMRC has degraded its own phone services – willing to let them fail, in the hope that people will be forced to go online.’
HMRC’s most recent monthly performance report, however, shows signs of improvement – 80 per cent of calls were handled in March, while average call time waits were down to 14 minutes and 44 seconds.
An HMRC spokesman said: ‘Events by staff networks should not be taken as reflecting the views of HMRC.
‘An event like this would only be attended by around 0.1% of staff, which would have no impact on our ability to staff our helplines. We have robust processes in place to ensure our phonelines are well-resourced throughout the day.’
It comes after the Mail last week revealed the NHS budgeted nearly £2 million for similar staff networks in the health service, many of whom hold ‘woke’ events for staff.
They included an event on ‘Embracing Asexuality’, a talk on ‘Embracing your Afro/Curly hair’ and another on ‘International Pronouns Day’.
