Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party, has declared that Britain took a wrong turn after the landmark Macpherson report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, and that it doesn't matter how many young black boys are stopped and searched by police - as long as more black lives are saved.
Speaking at the Institute for Government thinktank, Badenoch announced plans to scrap the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), a legal requirement for public bodies to consider how they promote equality. She argued that the Southport murders of three girls, the Nottingham stabbings, and the Manchester Arena bombing could all have been prevented if authorities hadn't feared being called racist.
She also cited the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, whose killer falsely accused him of racism, as evidence that the Macpherson report's definition of a racist incident - 'perceived as racist by the victim or any other person' - has been twisted. 'Mere accusations are being accepted as facts,' she said.
Badenoch committed to tripling stop-and-search incidents, despite a report earlier this year finding that black people are up to 48 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched in some of London's wealthiest areas. 'I'm afraid it doesn't matter if more black boys are searched,' she said, 'because it means more black lives will be saved.'
Liz Kendall, the science secretary, called the PSED abolition plan a move to 'turn the clock back,' noting it protects pregnant women, disabled people, and those on maternity leave from discrimination. The disability charity Sense described the duty as a 'commonsense safeguard,' urging politicians to strengthen rather than scrap it.
Badenoch also took aim at staff networks for black, Asian, and LGBTQ+ employees, calling them 'cliques' and 'cabals' that sometimes bully colleagues who disagree. She suggested they should be purely social organizations, not given time off for their activities.