The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has announced plans to scrap the legal duty requiring public bodies such as schools and hospitals to actively promote equality, warning they have become so afraid of being called racist that they are now 'institutionally incompetent'.
In what the party described as the first step in a programme to 'restore common sense', Badenoch said the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) has resulted in some groups being 'preferred over others'. The duty, which applies in England, Scotland and Wales, forces institutions to have 'due regard' to eliminating unlawful discrimination and advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics include age, disability, race, pregnancy, sex and sexual orientation.
“Kemi Badenoch plans to scrap the public sector equality duty, saying institutions have become 'institutionally incompetent' over racism fears.”
'We do not need to replace the duty, we need to explain to people that they should do their jobs,' Badenoch said, adding that equality law 'properly designed should protect us all in the same way' and 'should be a shield, not a sword'. But she argued that the understanding of such laws has been 'perverted'.
Her speech came after the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak and the police's response fuelled questions about equality policies, with critics accusing Badenoch of trying to head off a challenge from Reform UK, which wants to go further and scrap the entire Equality Act while still protecting people in the workplace. The Conservative leader, who served as equalities minister from 2020 to 2022, said 'modern Britain is the least racist country on Earth', drawing on her own experience as a child living on three different continents. 'It is because we are not racist, because we care so much about equality that we have overcorrected and actually brought in rules that are actually discriminatory,' she said.
Shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho insisted the move would not remove individual protections against discrimination, which she said were a 'totally separate' part of the Equality Act and would remain. But Labour’s Science Secretary Liz Kendall accused the Tories of trying to 'turn the clock back', claiming the duty stops 'pregnant women being sacked, women on maternity leave being sacked'. The TUC union accused Badenoch of wanting to 'legalise discrimination'.
Badenoch’s plan is widely seen as an attempt to win back voters who have drifted to Reform UK. The Conservatives are trying to forge a distinct response from both Labour, who have strengthened equality protections, and Reform, who want to abolish the Equality Act entirely.