Legal equality duty for public services should be scrapped, says Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch says scrapping the duty would let public services focus on core priorities instead of legal challenges and diversity training.
- On Tuesday, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch will announce plans to scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty in a major speech, arguing the duty has been used to promote "dangerous and divisive agendas."
- Mrs Badenoch argues the duty has "become a minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge," citing court rulings where prison officials breached their duty affecting Muslims convicted of Islamic terrorism.
- Introduced in 2010, the PSED requires public bodies to "advance equality of opportunity between people who share and people who do not share a relevant protected characteristic," with organizations facing numerous legal challenges since its inception.
- Liberal Democrat Equalities Spokesperson Marie Goldman called the proposal "a desperate attempt to fan the flames of culture war politics," while Reform UK dismissed it as "classic Conservative politics: too little, too late, and nowhere near enough."
- The Labour government is preparing a new strategy emphasizing socio-economic background, as Conservatives position themselves between Labour's strengthened equality protections and Reform UK's push to repeal the entire Equality Act.
29 Articles
29 Articles
Scrapping the Public Sector Equality Duty won’t create the change Badenoch wants
Scrapping the Public Sector Equality Duty won’t create the change Badenoch wants melissa.ittoo Thu, 11/06/2026 - 11:23 Kemi Badenoch’s speech at the IfG saw her pledge to abolish the Public Sector Equality Duty. 5 Comment Stuart Hoddinott Cassia Rowland Institute for Government Yes Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition, announced a Conservative government would scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty. But she is likely to be disappointed by th…
The Equality Act’s fatal paradox
As the World Cup kicks off, at least one person in Westminster seems to have been watching the habits of effective center-forwards. Delivering a speech on Tuesday, Kemi Badenoch found a pocket of space between defenders on Left and Right and nimbly exploited the gap. Citing her proven record of “fighting against identity politics on the...
Equality guidelines: in need of reform?
Kemi Badenoch’s call to scrap equalities guidelines for police and other public bodies has opened up a new front in the culture wars amid tensions over the death of Henry Nowak and riots in Belfast sparked by a knife attack by a Sudanese asylum seeker.The Tory leader said the landmark Equality Act 2010 does offer a valuable “shield” against discrimination. But the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places an active requirement on public bodies t…
Kemi Badenoch’s equality reforms don’t go far enough
Ten years ago, I found myself accompanying the then Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign Office to the Locarno room in the department’s palatial HQ building. I was covering as one of Simon McDonald’s private secretaries for the week and he was on his way to address the ‘Summer Diversity Internship Programme’ cohort. I still recall looking at the assembled group of perhaps a 100 interns and barely being able to find a white face. That is the …
Kemi Badenoch is laying a trap for Nigel Farage
On one level, Kemi Badenoch’s speech at the Institute for Government yesterday was a straightforward policy announcement. She’s promising to abolish the Public Sector Equality Duty — a provision under the 2010 Equality Act that requires state bodies to proactively eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity. It sounds well-intentioned but, as Badenoch argues, the [...]Read More...
Katie Lam: It's time to scrap the public sector equality duty
Katie Lam is a shadow Home Office minister and MP for Weald of Kent. The senseless murder of Henry Nowak has served as a reminder of the extent to which many of our institutions are now dominated by the idea that avoiding racism, or the perception of racism, is more important than keeping people safe. Just 18 years old, and a student at the University of Southampton, Henry was murdered when walking home from a night out. Yet when police arrived …
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