A GB News guest launched a scathing attack on the Civil Service after tax authority employees participated in a workplace session examining "the guilt of being British".
Speaking on the Peoples Channel, political commentator Suzanne Evans condemned the initiative as "woke nonsense" and firmly rejected any notion of colonial responsibility.
The controversial session took place on Wednesday morning at HM Revenue and Customs, where employees could join remotely during standard office hours.
GB NEWS
|Suzanne Evans said the event was just "woke nonsense"
The event, organised by HMRC's Race Network, ran from 11am to midday and was marketed as an interactive "listening circle" examining the experiences of South Asian staff members in Britain.
Evans told GB News: "Basically, staff at HMRC are being told to spend an hour on a seminar called Guilt of Being British, which looks at colonial guilt, inherited trauma, and all this other kind of woke nonsense.
"I don’t have any actual heritage I don’t have any colonial guilt. Well, it was before my time. I wasn’t responsible for it. Nobody alive today was ever responsible for it.
"It’s the latest nonsense we’ve come to expect from the Civil Service.
"And now this latest thing about them wanting to only take on working-class people in the Civil Service for goodness’ sake.
"I think that’s long overdue, even though it’s discriminatory and I don’t really support it.
"But this idea that the kind of academic, middle-class people are completely subsumed in all this woke stuff it’s nonsense.
"It’s replete throughout just about every organisation. I just think we do not feel colonial guilt."
According to internal communications, the workshop addressed topics including "the emotional weight of colonial history" and "inherited trauma", whilst exploring themes of dual identity for British South Asians.
The session also covered professional obstacles encountered by South Asian women, including workplace prejudice and cultural expectations.
PA |
The workshop addressed topics including "the emotional weight of colonial history"
Promotional materials indicated participants would discuss how personal narratives and cultural representation could help staff members "reclaim our narratives" through shared experiences and storytelling.
HMRC defended the session, stating that fewer than 0.1 per cent of its 60,000-strong workforce attended and claiming no impact on telephone services.
A spokesman emphasised that staff network events do not represent official departmental views and insisted adequate resources remained available for customer helplines throughout the day.