The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has pledged to scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), accusing public bodies of becoming “institutionally incompetent” after spending too long worrying about institutional racism. Her call for repeal came after the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak and the subsequent police response fuelled questions about equality policies and laws.
In a speech billed as the first step towards “restoring common sense”, Badenoch argued that the PSED had resulted in some groups being “preferred over others”. The duty, which applies to schools, hospitals and other public bodies in England, Scotland and Wales, requires them to have “due regard” to eliminating unlawful discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and fostering good relations between different groups.
“Kemi Badenoch calls for repeal of Public Sector Equality Duty, saying it has made public bodies 'institutionally incompetent'”
Badenoch said: “We do not need to replace the duty, we need to explain to people that they should do their jobs.” She insisted that equality law “properly designed should protect us all in the same way” and “should be a shield, not a sword”. However, she warned that the understanding of such laws was being “perverted”.
The proposal immediately drew fire from Labour. Science Secretary Liz Kendall said the Conservatives’ plans would “turn the clock back”, claiming they wanted to “repeal a duty which stops pregnant women being sacked, women on maternity leave being sacked”. The Conservatives hit back, with shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho insisting that protections against discrimination were a “totally separate” part of the Equality Act and would remain in place.
Badenoch positioned her move as a third way between Labour, which has strengthened equality protections, and Reform UK, which wants to scrap the entire Equality Act. Citing the chaos of the George Floyd era, she declared: “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.”
Referring to her own upbringing on three continents, she said: “Modern Britain is the least racist country on Earth. 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.”
Legal opinion accompanying the speech noted a tension within the PSED itself: artificially boosting the chances of some groups over others tends not to be conducive to close social harmony. Badenoch concluded: “We do not need to replace the duty, we need to explain to people that they should do their jobs.”