Staff at HM Revenue and Customs have confirmed the "Guilt of Being British" seminar has been cancelled in a victory over woke madness.

After receiving heavy criticism for holding one during working hours, HMRC confirmed the event has now been stopped.

A HMRC spokesman said: "This event has rightly been cancelled, with our full focus being on serving our customers day in and day out. Lessons will be learned from this."

The initial seminar was advertised as "a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British", which would cover topics including "the emotional weight of colonial history".

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HMRC confirmed the seminars have been cancelled

The session, aligned with the department's commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI), focused on "exploring themes of guilt, pride, and identity," offering a space for personal narratives and cultural reflections, as noted in an HMRC intranet post.

Attendees were told they would consider "the duality of identity - balancing heritage and belonging" and the "emotional effects of colonial history and inherited trauma".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called the event "nonsense".

She told the Daily Mail: "Is it any wonder the public hate dealing with HMRC, now we learn the staff are being taught to feel guilty about being British?"

Badenoch explained that she removed all these sessions during her time in the civil service.

The Tory leader continued: "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."

Earlier this year, Parliament's Public Accounts Committee produced a report which found HMRC answered just 66.4 per cent of customers' attempts to speak with an adviser, well below the target of 85 per cent.

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Kemi Badenoch said the UK 'we'll defend our history [and] not apologise for it'

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."

A spokesman for HMRC said less than 0.1 per cent of the 60,000-strong staff attended the sessions.