Sadiq Khan has sparked fury after it was revealed he is spending millions on « woke » statues to « enrich the public realm » in London.
The project was announced in the wake of the Black Lives Matter riots, with a statue of slave owner Edward Colston torn down by Left-wing mobs in Bristol.
At the time, the London Mayor said he wanted to improve the level of diversity of public memorials, to include more ethnic minority Britons.
However, a Freedom of Information Request by The Spectator revealed the true cost of the politically correct scheme.
The project has now cost a staggering £2,138,888, including £1,156,417 in grants for community projects.
The Untold Stories fund has handed out cash for 398 new pieces of public art and events, including 159 plaques, QR codes and information boards.
They include tributes to anti-slavery campaigners and LGBTQIA+ history.
The head of campaigns at the Taxpayers’ Alliance, Elliot Keck, blasted the waste, telling the Mail: “Londoners have had enough of the Mayor racking up the taxpayer-funded credit card with endless amounts of woke waste.
“Sadiq Khan claims to stand up for the capital, yet it’s clear as day that he’s more interested in an ideological crusade that sweeps away the city’s extraordinary historical legacy.
“Instead of studying statues, the Mayor should focus on tackling the knife crime crisis destroying lives across London.”
In 2021, MPs held a debate about Mr Khan’s woke statue project, in which he was accused of trying to distract from his myriad failures as London mayor by jumping on political bandwagons.
The Mayor originally set aside £1.1million of taxpayers cash for the project, which has now nearly doubled.
Gareth Bacon MP demanded that the Mayor disband his statue commission, accusing him of “pure virtue-signalling”.
Mr Bacon blasted: “If this was such a burning need then where was it in the mayor’s last manifesto?”
“He chose to do this directly after the BLM protests last year. What this is, yet again, is expensive virtue signalling.
“It’s paying a lot of public money to jump on a passing bandwagon with an eye for the election coming up.
“What it is is a betrayal of this country’s history and an attempt to rewrite it.”
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