Kemi Badenoch will vow on Tuesday to scrap the legal duty on public bodies to promote equality, arguing that the requirement has become a “minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge”.
The Conservative leader, who served as minister for equalities between 2020 and 2022, plans to abolish the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) – a core part of the 2010 Equality Act – in what her party calls the first step towards “restoring common sense”. The move is aimed at fending off the challenge from Reform UK, which wants to scrap the entire Equality Act, while differentiating the Tories from Labour, which Badenoch accuses of wanting more “DEI bureaucracy”.
“Badenoch will scrap the public sector equality duty, calling it a 'minefield' used to advance 'dangerous and divisive agendas'.”
Ahead of the speech in London, the Conservatives said: “From the Bank of England taking Winston Churchill off banknotes, to police training that tells officers not to treat people the same, public bodies are using PSED to advance dangerous and divisive agendas.” The Bank of England’s decision earlier this year to replace historical figures with animals, birds and insects on banknotes was driven by a public consultation – historical figures came third behind nature and architecture – but Badenoch has seized on it as an example of “identity politics” gone too far.
The announcement comes a week after violence erupted on the streets of Southampton following the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who was handcuffed while bleeding to death after being stabbed. The case fuelled questions about equality policies and policing, with Downing Street rejecting claims by the Trump administration of “two-tier policing” in the UK.
The Public Sector Equality Duty, which applies in England, Scotland and Wales, requires public bodies – including schools, hospitals and the police – to eliminate unlawful discrimination and “advance equality of opportunity” between people with and without protected characteristics such as age, disability, race, pregnancy and sex. Since its introduction, organisations and individuals have used it to challenge public authorities in court. In 2011, the High Court ruled that Somerset and Gloucestershire county councils had not complied with the duty when they withdrew funding from more than 20 libraries. A year later, Devon County Council was found to have failed in its duty when setting care home fees, after a group of around 100 care home owners argued the fees did not cover costs. In 2020, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission concluded that the Home Office’s “hostile environment” policies had breached the duty in relation to the Windrush generation.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow minister for equalities, said: “We need to take identity politics out of public life and bring back common sense, fairness and equality before the law. Our public services should be focused on doing their jobs.”
The Labour government, meanwhile, is promising a new equality and diversity strategy focused on getting working-class people into the civil service. Badenoch’s speech is seen as a bid to position the Conservatives as the responsible but populist choice, with the party arguing the duty has become the “legal foundation that has allowed identity politics” to spread through the public sector.