Kemi Badenoch pledges to end identity politics in the public sector, saying: 'Let's sweep away this rubbish and bring back common sense'

By JASON GROVES, POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 22:00, 8 June 2026 | Updated: 22:00, 8 June 2026 Kemi Badenoch has pledged to drive identity politics out of public services like the police, schools and hospitals. In a major intervention on Tuesday, the Conservative leader will commit to scrapping the ‘public sector equality duty’ which has been blamed for the spread of identity politics throughout the public sector. Mrs Badenoch will say the time has come to ‘sweep away this rubbish and bring back common sense’. She will warn that whatever the original intention of the duty ‘in practice, it has become a minefield that exposes almost every public decision to legal challenge’ and is leading to ‘ludicrous outcomes’. The public sector equality duty is a central plank of Labour’s controversial Equality Act. It requires public bodies to consider how they impact on people with protected characteristics like race and gender. Critics warn it has been used to drive through divisive diversity initiatives. The Tory leader will highlight the case of convicted terrorist Sahayb Abu who successfully sued the government last year after he and others were segregated in prison following a brutal attack on prison guards by Hashem Abedi, brother of the Manchester Arena suicide bomber. The case hinged in part on the fact that all those segregated were Muslim – a fact that Abu claimed breached the public sector equality duty. Mrs Badenoch will describe the ruling as ‘madness’, saying the duty is ‘compromising security decisions like isolating dangerous criminals… in case terrorists call us racists’. Madness: Kemi Badenoch says the public sector equality duty has led to perverse outcomes The move comes amid growing public anger over the police treatment of Southampton teenager Henry Nowak, who was stabbed to death by a Sikh man who falsely claimed he was the victim of racism. Officers initially ignored his plea for help and instead handcuffed him, reading him his rights while he lay dying. His killer Vickrum Digwa was jailed for life for his murder last week. Writing in the Sunday Times, Mrs Badenoch said public institutions had ‘become frightened of getting race wrong’ leading them to ‘outsource moral judgment to activist consultants and “community leaders” who often do not represent the public and have no business writing or auditing policing frameworks’. She singled out for criticism the Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board, which oversees the controversial police race action plan, and whose leaders ‘believe in defunding the police’. Asked if she supported defunding the police, the board’s chair Abimbola Johnson said on Monday it was legitimate to ask whether the police are given ‘too much public money’ and whether some of it should be diverted to ‘more preventative things to deal with the causes of criminality’. Shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho said the duty would be scrapped in its entirety. She added: ‘The Conservatives believe in judging people by the content of their character, not the colour of their skin. 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. ‘We will amend the Equality Act to stop public services like the police and NHS spending precious time and resources on contested ideas about race, sex and gender, leaving more time for the priorities of the British public.’ No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.