Kemi Badenoch vows to scrap public sector equality duty to counter Reform UK

Kemi Badenoch will vow to scrap the duty on public bodies to consider how they can promote equality as she seeks to head off the challenge from Reform UK by presenting her party as responsible but also in tune with populist anger.

Badenoch, who was Conservative minister for equalities between 2020 and 2022, will commit to scrapping the public sector equality duty (PSED), a legal requirement obliging those bodies to think how they can improve society and promote equality in their day-to-day business.

The Tory leader will use a speech on Tuesday to claim that “dangerous and divisive agendas” are being advanced through the use of this key section of the Equality Act, affecting public bodies from the police to the Bank of England.

The move – part of her campaign against what she describes as “identity politics” – is an attempt to position her party between Labour, which she accuses of wanting further “DEI bureaucracy”, and Reform, which has pledged to scrap the Equality Act altogether.

“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 Conservatives said in a press release before Badenoch’s speech in London.

Her criticism of the Bank referred to its announcement earlier this year that it would replace historical figures on bank notes with animals, birds and insects, a move that triggered condemnation from Badenoch, Reform and others on the right.

The Bank has said the driver for that decision was a public consultation in which people were asked what they would like to see on new notes. Historical figures came third, behind nature and architecture and landmarks.

Political tensions remain high a week on from violence on the streets of Southampton, after the murder of the 18-year-old student Henry Nowak. Nowak was handcuffed while he bled to death after being stabbed and falsely accused of racism by the man later jailed for killing him. Downing Street has rejected the Trump administration’s claims that there is “two-tier policing” in the UK.

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 and keeping the public safe – not pandering to radical ideologies and pushing diversity and inclusion training, which does more harm than good.”

Scrapping the PSED would be opposed by groups and individuals across society because of the consequences in a range of areas, related not just to race but to disability, religion and pregnancy.

The website of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) links the PSED to the obligation for public bodies to end unlawful behaviour banned by the Equality Act 2010, including discrimination, harassment and victimisation. The commission’s new chair wrote her PhD thesis on the PSED and has argued that evidence largely suggests it has positive impact on equality practice in public authorities.

Badenoch in March announced a “culture and integration commission”, including an overhaul of the Equality Act. That work is being supported by the barrister Andrew Dinsmore, whose advice to repeal the PSED will be published on Tuesday. The Tories contrast this with Reform’s pledge to scrap the Equality Act, which the Conservatives claim would “open the floodgates to more DEI”.

Badenoch sought last week to differentiate herself from Nigel Farage’s call for “pure cold rage” in response to Nowak’s killing, with the Tory leader being thanked by Keir Starmer for “her tone”. But she also used an article in the Daily Mail to claim that the actions of police were the fault of identity politics, in part the result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The EHCR, which enforces the Equality Act, said: “The PSED is not a barrier to these organisations doing the job the public expects them to do.

Most take it seriously and use the requirements of the PSED to design the best possible services for everyone.

It’s there to help them make good decisions, based on an understanding of the impact those decisions have on everyone that they affect,” a spokesperson said.