Overview

• The hour-long ‘Guilt of Being British’ listening circle was held remotely by the HMRC Race Network during office hours on August 6
• Fewer than 0.1% of HMRC’s 60,000 staff attended, and the department said its call-handling performance remained unaffected
• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the seminar “nonsense” and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg described it as “peculiar,” arguing it breached civil service neutrality
• The TaxPayers’ Alliance and other campaigners criticized the use of taxpayer funds for diversity network events during peak customer-service hours
• HMRC announced the event’s cancellation and pledged to review its diversity network guidelines in response to sustained political and public-service quality concerns