Kemi Badenoch will this week outline plans to scrap the legal duty requiring police officers, nurses and teachers to consider equality issues as part of their daily work, in what she describes as a drive to end “identity politics” in British public life. The Conservative leader intends to dismantle the public sector equality duty, a core element of the Equality Act 2010, arguing that its “expansive” and “open-ended requirements” have led public bodies to treat people differently depending on their characteristics and fuelled a fixation on diversity, equality and inclusion policies.
The public sector equality duty, set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, requires all UK public bodies — including central and local government, the NHS, schools, police and fire services — to have “due regard” to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people with protected characteristics. Those characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Public authorities are also under specific duties to publish equality information annually and set equality objectives every four years. Critics, including Badenoch, argue that the duty has become a bureaucratic “minefield” that forces money and attention towards box-ticking exercises rather than core public services.
Badenoch points to examples where she claims the duty has been misused to advance “dangerous and divisive agendas.” She has cited the Bank of England’s decision to replace historical figures on banknotes with wildlife, police training that she says leads officers not to treat people the same, and a court finding that prison officials breached their duty by separating Muslim prisoners convicted of Islamic terrorism — potentially making them eligible for compensation. She argues that these applications of the duty have stoked “identity politics” and a culture in which diversity, equality and inclusion initiatives, known as DEI, consume resources that should be spent on frontline services. Police forces, she notes, are spending millions of pounds on DEI specialists and programmes, a spending record that has come under fierce scrutiny since the death of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in police custody last December.
Nowak died in Southampton after being stabbed by Vickrum Singh Digwa, who falsely accused Nowak of a racist assault when police arrived. Bodycam footage and witness accounts indicate that as Nowak lay dying, repeatedly saying he had been stabbed and could not breathe, officers handcuffed him and read him his rights, initially dismissing his pleas. The police response has sparked a political row, with questions raised about whether equality law influenced the officers’ actions. Badenoch met with Nowak’s family last week and said they agreed “common sense” needed to be brought back to policing. The Police and Crime Commissioner for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Donna Jones, has described the incident as a “national tragedy” and raised concerns about impartiality and judgment. The force has apologised for handcuffing Nowak before his death and referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. The case has also fuelled allegations of “two-tier policing,” with claims that officers treat certain groups more leniently, and drawn attention to the carrying of ceremonial knives — Digwa was carrying a kirpan and a dagger — with the Police and Crime Commissioner intending to ask the Prime Minister for a national review of laws on bladed articles under religious exemptions.
Badenoch has previously described the Equality Act as a “shield, not a sword,” but has also suggested its misinterpretation has “fed a lot of the discontent” in communities. She has been described as a “sex realist” and was reported to have referred to transgender women as “men” in a leaked recording. Her team reportedly placed “men” and “ladies” signs on gender-neutral toilet facilities during her leadership campaign, indicating disapproval of such facilities. The scrapping of the public sector equality duty is part of a broader overhaul of the Equality Act 2010, which follows her earlier announcement of a “culture and integration commission” to review the legislation.
Social Media Ban Debate
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper has weighed into the separate debate over the UK government’s consultation on potential social media restrictions for under-16s. Speaking to GB News, Cooper questioned Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s motives, saying: “I think our Prime Minister is probably on his way out. He’ll be thinking about his legacy. And I think he’s got a very simple question to ask himself. Whose side is he on? Is he on the side of British parents and children who need to be protected online, or is he on the side of Elon Musk and Donald Trump?” Cooper added that her party would look at the details of any government proposals but argued that Britain needs a prime minister who can “stand up to the big tech giants.” She has also called for “stronger regulation” and questioned the government’s policy on requiring user-generated content to be identifiable as filtered or altered. Badenoch, for her part, has advocated for a simpler, broader ban on social media for under-16s, criticising the government’s current approach as “piecemeal.”
The Trump administration has warned the UK against such a move. In a submission to the government’s social media consultation published by the US Embassy in London, the White House stated that the United States does not “categorically oppose age assurance measures” but urged “careful consideration of their scope and implementation.” The submission added: “We favour narrowly targeted requirements primarily with respect to pornographic and adult commercial content (e.g., online gambling, tobacco sales, alcohol sales), rather than broad social media bans.” Donald Trump himself has spoken out against potential censorship of his platform, Truth Social, in the UK, framing it as a free speech issue. Separately, the Molly Rose Foundation, a child safety charity, has warned that a rushed ban on social media for under-16s could “unravel” and be circumvented by children, potentially driving them to less regulated platforms. The government’s consultation, titled “Growing up in the online world,” received over 116,000 responses and has considered measures including setting a minimum age for social media access, restricting features that encourage excessive use such as infinite scrolling, raising the digital age of consent, and improving age verification. Guidance for parents on smartphone use and screen time is also being developed.
