An NHS Trust has given staff a "wheel of privilege" as part of an "allyship training" module. The wheel is used so that staff can learn how marginalised they are or how much power they have.

Those that are white, thin, straight, and comfortably well-off are the most powerful, according to the chart. While, those with darker skin, those in poverty, those that are trans, and those that are "large" are considered by the chart the least powerful.

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (SFHT) issued the privilege wheel as part of voluntary allyship training package which they can sign up to on top of mandatory diversity training. However, veteran Tory MP blasted the Trust for pushing "half-baked, intellectually vacuous" identity politics.

He said: "This kind of nonsense can have a vicious effect in that if you happen to be a white person who might be facing challenges – these could be health issues, or being widowed, or caring for elderly parents – that person could still be deemed to be privileged."

The Lincolnshire MP added: "Yet if you are rich, black and portly you are still considered to be somewhat under-privileged (according to the wheel)."

The Trust said it did not cost it anything to share the resource, which was already widely available online. It added that the wheel was given out to help allyship training participants "to better understand privilege".

A spokesperson for SFHT said: "Our hardworking NHS colleagues are at the heart of everything we do to save and improve patients’ lives across all of the diverse communities we are proud to serve here at Sherwood Forest Hospitals.

"Training and education opportunities that are proportionate and offer good value-for-money are a vital part of the support we offer our colleagues to help them to keep doing what they do best — providing outstanding care to the patients we care for."