Former volunteers, who mostly asked to remain anonymous, say concerns about Joell-Deshields’ leadership pre-date the recent legal action by several years.

Asked to sum up their concerns, one told us: “It just felt like the community was pushed to the side and it shifted into a commercial venture to inflate the egos of those in charge.”

Some volunteers said his appointment raised “red flags” from the outset, as his job was not advertised externally.

He became the only remaining PIL board member in 2021, when all other board members and community advisers resigned following allegations of institutional racism.

Former volunteer manager Simon Taverner told us “it didn’t feel right” that Joell-Deshields “emerged from the wreckage of mass resignations to be the last person standing”.

After taking over the organisation, Joell-Deshields led a restructure which saw him go from an unpaid volunteer chair to a chief executive paid more than £80,000 a year, making him the first paid leader in the organisation’s history – and its first ever CEO.

Insiders have told the BBC they questioned the transparency of the decision, which was decided by Joell-Deshields and three other directors without the job being advertised.

Some say they were uncomfortable with the timing of the announcement. It came just weeks after Pride in London received a £625,000 grant from the GLA to help deliver events between 2023 and 2027.

Within weeks of the grant being signed off, two other director roles were advertised with a £60,000 salary, plus a 10% performance-related bonus. One of those two directors was Paisis, who is now PIL’s interim CEO.

Following the restructure, PIL was spending more than £200,000 a year on its CEO and two directors. That “didn’t sit well” with Rob Millwood, former deputy director of operations.

“Traditionally, if nobody was taking a salary, that amount would’ve been able to pay for the majority of the parade to take place,” he told the BBC.

Pride in London told the BBC that the GLA is aware that the size and scale of the event “requires a small number of full-time employed roles, alongside 120 core-team volunteers.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said the funding was “subject to the GLA’s rigorous due diligence processes.”