Badenoch to vow to scrap public sector equality duty in effort to fend off Reform

In speech on Tuesday, Tory leader will claim obligation to consider equality being used to advance ‘divisive agendas’

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.