Kemi Badenoch has announced plans to scrap the legal duty requiring public bodies such as schools and hospitals to consider promoting equality in their decisions, arguing it has made them “institutionally incompetent”.
The Conservative leader’s proposal to repeal the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) comes after the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak and the police response fuelled questions about equality policies and laws. Speaking on Tuesday, Badenoch said the duty had resulted in some groups being “preferred over others” and warned that public bodies have “spent so long worrying about institutional racism that they have become institutionally incompetent”.
“Kemi Badenoch proposes repealing Public Sector Equality Duty, arguing it has made public bodies 'institutionally incompetent'”
“We do not need to replace the duty,” she said. “We need to explain to people that they should do their jobs.”
The PSED, which applies in England, Scotland and Wales, requires public bodies to have “due regard” to eliminating unlawful discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity for people with protected characteristics including age, disability, race, pregnancy, sex and sexual orientation, and fostering good relations between groups. A legal opinion accompanying Badenoch’s speech noted a tension between the last two objectives — boosting some groups, it argued, tends not to be conducive to social harmony.
Badenoch insisted that equality law “properly designed should protect us all in the same way” and “should be a shield, not a sword”. But she said the understanding that such laws should prevent differential treatment is being “perverted”. She pointed to her own experience living on three different continents as a child, and declared: “Modern Britain is the least racist country on Earth.” Repealing the PSED, she said, would be the “best way” to restore common sense.
The move is designed to carve a distinct path between Labour, which has strengthened equality protections, and Reform UK, which wants to scrap the entire Equality Act. Reform claims the Act causes unfair discrimination against white people, but would still protect people in the workplace. Badenoch argued: “The answer to Black Lives Matter is not a White Lives Matter born of the same racial grievance. We will not defeat identity politics by building a mirror-image of it.”
Labour’s response was immediate. Science Secretary Liz Kendall said the Conservatives’ plans would “turn the clock back”, claiming the Tories wanted to “repeal a duty which stops pregnant women being sacked, women on maternity leave being sacked”. Shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho hit back, insisting protections against discrimination are a “totally separate” part of the Equality Act and would remain in place.
Badenoch’s speech came as news circulated of the attempted beheading of Stephen Ogilvie in Belfast by Sudanese migrant Hadi Alodid, an incident that triggered a wave of anti-immigrant violence. The Conservative leader sought to position herself as a centre-forward exploiting space between defenders on the Left and Right, arguing that the duty has “overcorrected” and brought in rules that are “actually discriminatory”.
The PSED, introduced under the 2010 Equality Act, requires proactive regard for three areas: ending discrimination, advancing equal opportunities, and fostering good relations. Badenoch’s proposed repeal would remove only that anticipatory duty, leaving the underlying anti-discrimination protections intact — a move she says will restore common sense to public services.