Tories pledge to scrap diversity rule after Nowak murder

[Twiglets1]

The Tories have pledged to tear up the requirement for public-sector bodies to promote equality following the murder of Henry Nowak.

Kemi Badenoch has pledged to scrap the “equality duty”, which requires state-sector organisations to foster equality of opportunity between different groups, saying it encourages divisive identity politics.

The party believes the public sector equality duty (PSED) has fuelled a box-ticking mindset under which police officers are advised to treat people differently based on their ethnicity.

The PSED is part of the Equality Act 2010, and tells public bodies they must promote equality of opportunity between those who have a protected characteristic (such as women, black people and gay people) and those who do not.

The Tories believe removing it would restore the principle of equality before the law and stop councils and police forces from advancing “dangerous and divisive agendas”.

In a speech on Tuesday, Mrs Badenoch will say the duty has become a “minefield that exposes almost every significant public decision to legal challenge”.

“A court recently found that prison officials had breached their duty because their separation of prisoners was disproportionately affecting Muslims convicted of Islamic terrorism,” she will say in Westminster.

“These terrorists could now be eligible for compensation. This is madness. This duty is compromising security decisions like isolating dangerous criminals in case the terrorists call us racists.”

She will say the duty leads to “ludicrous outcomes”, such as Norfolk Police telling a job applicant that she was unsuitable because of her gender-critical views.

“The public sector equality duty has turned equality into a zero-sum game where some groups are preferred over others,” she will say. “And the more public bodies chase equality of outcome, the further they move from equal treatment and equality under the law.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/08/tories-pledge-to-scrap-diversity-rule-after-nowak-murder/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ez3v9v8jqo

“Those who are successful on the internship will then be prioritised for entry to the Fast Stream, the main graduate programme for entry to the civil service.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: "Under my leadership, a Conservative government would scrap all this rubbish and hire the best people."
The change has been driven by Pat McFadden, who as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is responsible for civil service reform.
He told the BBC: "We need to get more working class young people into the civil service so it harnesses the broadest range of talent and truly reflects the country.
"Government makes better decisions when it represents and understands the people we serve."
Currently around a quarter of higher education students are from a lower socio-economic background, but the group represented only 12% of successful applicants to the Fast Stream in 2024.
Some Labour ministers have come to believe in their first year in office that parts of the civil service are too privileged, with people who have come from similar backgrounds.”

To be honest, if the standard is that the kids of teachers are too privileged for the fast track, that I do agree with Kemi!

From that article “Working class occupations such as cleaner, waiter and bricklayer”

It is full on Communist to prioritise the children of a cleaner for the Fast Track. Now if they are good and clever, of course nobody should discriminate against them and if they have good grades, I doubt anyone ever would in this day and age.

But to actually say the Civil Service needs the kids of waiters and cleaners desperately is one step too far towards Communism. It is pretty ludicrous.

Also, if the story is the students from poorer areas won’t even apply for the fast track in London because they cannot afford to attend interviews/rent locally etc, then obviously the answer is to start moving the civil service to different locations around the whole country, so all graduates with some talent get a chance to apply. Not some Commie style top down bollocks to make yourself feel good and virtue signal pointlessly.

I see generalized culture that contributed. to the white victim in this case being handcuffed

Nobody wants a candidate if they aren't suitable for the job, it's more about widening the pool to make sure we get the best candidates, not just the ones who look like us/come from the same background/are able bodied, etc.

These aren't permanent jobs, they're internships. There aren't restrictions on who can apply for the Fast Stream itself.

@TheSmallAssassin “Those deemed to have performed well will then be fast-tracked to the final stages of the Fast Stream selection process if they decide to apply to work in the civil service after graduation.”
Sounds like a way in to me, as long as you perform well during the internship.

They've still got to get through the final stages of selection though, @Araminta1003

I think it's a good way to level the playing field and they've still got to win to get a job.

@TheSmallAssassin - you are assuming this does not put off the very best candidates from applying in the first place anymore. And some will be put off if they cannot do an internship. We need the best people to apply across the board. So it is best to not exclude anyone openly if you want competition for the brightest and the best.

There are only 200 internships, and apparently over 70 000 people apply for the Fast Stream - I don't think that puts many people off.

What is the relationship between public institutions being required to offer equality of opportunity and Henry Nowak's death? Are you suggesting that the officers were inappropriately hired for diversity reasons?

Nothing I have written suggests that's a sensible question to ask me, so the answer is obviously no.

You are taking too narrow a view. Handcuffing a dying, bleeding man is not rooted in that one case, it's rooted in the general culture, as I have already said.

it's not levelling the playing field.
It's restricting applicants from professional backgrounds from applying to professional jobs.
It's pulling everyone down.

Kemi all the way here

Quote :"It's pulling everyone down."

Rather than a little helping hand up I suppose ?

By your logic then, letting people into "professions" when they don't have the "right background", pulls everyone down.

So don't let "them" in, because they will pull "us" down.

Yup, as a working class I have come across that. Indeed, it has often felt I have been pushed back down often enough.

No. Nobody is restricted from applying to the Fast Stream.

@RedTagAlan - what occupations did your parents have?
The BBC article quotes cleaner bricklayer or waiter.
I doubt Starmer‘s tool maker would qualify. Remember they had teachers down as middle class.

I guess we all have different definitions of class.
However, given people already widely criticise both the public sector and political class to be full of out of touch thickos, I really don’t think putting anyone talented off is a good idea. And that is not saying there won‘t be talent amongst grads whose parent cleaned hospitals. Just saying I think they need genuine talent across all classes.

Internships work both ways. The employer is selling it to the most talented graduates too. The most talented can go on an internship elsewhere, where they will be most welcome. Every large successful private sector company knows that you do the leg up somewhat whilst at the same time still offering the places for everyone else. So you genuinely get the best talent pool and encourage everyone to apply.

DEI is American? No it isn't! I work for a British company and we have a diversity, equality and inclusion policy - that's what DEI is and it's alive and well in workplaces in the UK.

Of course people of all ethnicities kill people, but unless you've been living under a stone for the past week or two you'll understand that the reason people are so angry about the murder of Henry Nowak is because his murderer accused him of racism and the police then handcuffed him as he lay dying on the pavement, despite him telling them that he'd been stabbed and couldn't breathe. In other words, the police who attended the incident prioritised the accusation of racism above the fact that someone had been stabbed, which is unbelievable and could only come about because they had been trained to do that.

I sincerely see no connection between equality of opportunity and the death of a man in custody, if the death doesn't arise from inappropriately hired police. It's a completely and entirely different issue from treatment of suspects.

Yes we do have similar, sometimes called EDI

Then you see it differently from me. I can live with that.

Good idea Kemi

Kemi is much better turned out than the rest of them. She has a much better dress sense and contemporary look and I wonder whether people just implicitly now think she is just more with the time.