For the past six years, I have worked for charities struggling for racial justice in the UK. Throughout that time, I have repeatedly watched as politicians tell us that what we are experiencing isn’t actually happening.
I’ve seen government commissioners telling us that, despite the data, there is no evidence of institutional racism in the UK. Politicians are telling us that crackdowns on far-right groups after weeks of racist rioting are examples of ‘two-tier policing’. That the claims of discrimination that we face are actually just us playing the ‘victim’.
I have also witnessed continuous attempts to weaken the hard-won protections we have against discrimination — laws that keep many of us safe without us even realising it. This includes Reform’s recent announcement that they intend to scrap the Equality Act, a precious law that includes safeguards for women, people of colour, disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people and many others from victimisation and harassment.
The Equality Act has a real-world impact. It’s not a slogan or a talking point. It’s the legal guarantee that you can’t be sacked for being pregnant or harassed at work for being disabled or gay.
Outside of the workplace, the act also gives us the chance to make sure our public authorities, such as schools, hospitals or local councils, take action where there is unequal treatment, discrimination or harassment. It means that if you’re a disabled person trying to access your local library, adjustments must be made for you to do so. It means that if you face racist bullying at school, your teachers must act.
The act has secured life-changing victories for people fighting discrimination. It was because of the act that in 2024, 3,500 women retail workers were finally compensated following years of unequal pay from their bosses. It was used to defend a bouncer in West London facing racist bullying in his workplace, resulting in unfair dismissal, and to protect two black employees working at a Housing Trust passed over for a promotion without a fair process. It was used to protect a pregnant woman stereotyped as ‘emotional and hormonal’ at work, who was routinely excluded from meetings and forced to take unpaid leave.
Suella Braverman says that ripping up the Equality Act will mean a return to ‘meritocracy’ over ‘victimhood’. The opposite is true. Repealing it will make it even harder to get by on merit in our already unfair society. It will allow the bullies to get louder and make accountability for victims harder. It will give the powerful free rein to discriminate as they please. In a society in which misogynistic, racist, homophobic and transphobic attitudes are increasingly normalised, this poses a massive threat to our rights.
Ripping up the Equality Act is a deliberate attempt to strip away the protections for millions of people in this country — not just a select few. And yet it’s been justified by Reform politicians who argue that it fails to protect working people, with the Reform Home Affairs Spokesperson Zia Yusuf going as far as saying that ‘social class is not listed or mentioned [in the act] at all’.
This couldn’t be more wrong. The Equality Act is actually supposed to ensure you can’t be discriminated against over your class or economic background by public bodies. This is the case in Scotland, but in England, that part of the Act has yet to be brought into force.
If politicians are concerned about protecting working-class people during a cost-of-living crisis, surely their priority should be introducing this part of the act rather than tearing it up altogether?