What has the Equality Act ever done for me?

Reform UK has announced that if they gain power, they will look to repeal the Equality Act 2010 on day one. In a speech, Suella Braverman stated “We will get rid of the equalities department, we will scrap the equalities minister, and we will repeal the Equality Act.” (Personnel Today, 2026).

However, if the Equality Act is repealed, every person in the UK loses legal protection from discrimination. The myth which makes this idea seems attractive to some people is the untrue narrative that the Equality Act only benefits some people.

There is a false narrative that it gives women, people from ethnic minorities or disabled people an unfair advantage; that creating equality for marginalised groups means discrimination for others. Nigel Farage stated “Well, people are losing their jobs now, particularly if they are white, and male and middle-aged.” (The Independent, 2026).

This is factually untrue. The Equality Act 2010 actively protects people from being discriminated against under these characteristics. It is unlawful to discriminate against race (White), sex (male) and age (middle-aged). If we look at the statistics, the UK unemployment rate was 5.1% in July to September 2025. The rate was 4.3% for people from a White ethnic background. It was 8.8% for people from minority ethnic backgrounds (House of Commons, 2025)

In reality, the Equality Act benefits everybody, and the irony is that the cases that are cited by Reform as evidence that the Equality Act leads to discrimination against white men, are those which are on record because the white men have won their claims of discrimination… under the Equality Act. (e.g. Furlong v the Chief Constable of Cheshire Police, 2018)

The Equality Act brings together over forty years of equality legislation under one umbrella. It is designed to protect everybody from discrimination and harassment at work, in education and in accessing goods and services. Whilst the Act is by no means perfect, getting rid of the Act would mean that nobody is now afforded these hard-won rights.

Suella Braverman stated: “Scrapping the Equality Act means getting rid of the pernicious, divisive notion of protected characteristics.”  (The Independent, 2026) Which again plays into the idea that some people don’t have protected characteristics, that they only apply to some.

However, protected characteristics are just the parts of people’s identity that the Equality Act says that it is unlawful to use as the basis of discrimination. These are age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage or civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. We all have protected characteristics. The Equality Act protects all of us. It takes some mental gymnastics to argue that it is divisive to protect people from racial harassment or to stop people being discriminated against because of their sex.

How does the Equality Act Protect Us?

The Equality Act didn’t just come out of the blue in 2010. It brought together all existing equality legislation, developed over the previous 45 years together under one umbrella Act. Some of the protections that it provides are outlined below:  

• The Act prevents employers from sacking you if you become pregnant or because you are over 50
• It prevents a landlord from refusing to rent to you based on your religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation
• If someone sexually harasses you at work, your employer is liable, and they have a statutory duty to prevent this from happening
• If you become disabled during your employment your employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments to remove disadvantages, prevent discrimination, and avoid unfair dismissal
• It means that shops and other service providers have a duty to ensure that disabled people can access their services.
• It means that employers can’t pay women less than men to do the same job.
• It means that a school can’t refuse to educate your child because you made a claim of discrimination or harassment against them.

Despite Reform’s claims that the Act has gone too far and privileges minorities at the expense of others, it is important to stress that positive discrimination is unlawful. You cannot employ someone to fulfil a quota, or because they have a particular protected characteristic, unless it is a very specific occupational requirement. For example, a religious organisation can require someone to have a particular religion to fulfil a religious role.

The Public Sector Equality Duty and Positive Action

Zia Yusuf has taken aim at the Public Sector Equality Duty and Positive Action. He has stated that these are the discriminatory parts of the Equality Act, and that Positive Action is the reason why White working-class young people aren’t accessing opportunities (Newsnight, 2026). So, what are these, and do these lead to ‘industrialised discrimination’?

The Public Sector Equality Duty states that public sector organisations need to consider the needs of people who are disadvantaged or suffer inequality, when they make decisions about how they provide their services and implement policies. They need to look to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations… hardly a divisive concept.

Positive Action comes into play where an organisation has a clear evidence base that people are suffering a disadvantage connected to a protected characteristic; have different needs; or participation in an activity by people who share a protected characteristic is disproportionately low. At this point the Equality Act allows organisations to put things in place, such as targeted mentoring schemes or open days, or providing specific training e.g. leadership training for women where they are underrepresented at senior level. It does not allow an organisation to recruit based on a protected characteristic. However, far from being widespread, to the point of being detrimental to White working-class people, the use of Positive Action is not at all common in the UK. Evidence shows that it is not well understood, and employers lack awareness and confidence to engage with it (EHRC, 2019).

If we look at a specific example cited by Zia Yusuf, we can see that apprenticeships aren’t going disproportionately to minority ethnic young people. The data shows that, in the year ending in July 2024 White people were 83% of the population and made up 83.5% of apprenticeship starts (Department for Education, 2025).

However, Zia Yusuf and Suella Braverman are right that there is an issue of underachievement amongst white boys who access Free School Meals. There are many complex reasons for this, systemic inequalities, poverty, low expectations and lack of opportunities being among them. However, abolishing the Equality Act won’t address any of these. These issues will not be addressed by further removing people’s rights and putting more power in the hands of the elites to harass and discriminate.

Zia Yusuf also stated that The Equality Act has “absolutely no measure in it for social class.” (Newsnight, 2026). This is untrue, there is a socioeconomic duty built into the Equality Act, which requires public authorities to consider the ways their decisions increase or decrease inequalities that result from socio-economic disadvantage. This duty is in place in Scotland and Wales, however, successive governments in England have failed to enact it. The Labour government did include the pledge to enact this duty in their 2024 manifesto, and this would be very welcome.

It is vital to consistently challenge that the threat to White working-class boys comes from ethnic minorities or women. We need to see this rhetoric for the divisive distraction that it is, actively reject the narrative of prejudice and hate, challenge misinformation, and wholeheartedly defend and look to strengthen equality legislation, not dismantle it.

References

Department for Education (2025) Apprenticeship starts (3^rd July 2025)

EHRC (2019) Employers fear using positive action to close disability, ethnicity and gender pay gaps

Equality Act 2010

Furlong v Chief Constable of Cheshire Police [2019] 2 WLUK 725 (2405577/18)

House of Commons (2025) Unemployment by Ethnic Background. Research Briefing Number 6385

Labour Party (2024) Change: Labour Party manifesto 2024. London

Newsnight (2026) Reform Vow to Scrap Equality Act (17^th February 2026)

Personnel Today (2026) Reform UK would ‘repeal Equality Act’

The Independent (2026) Farage accused of ‘divisive politics’ over unproven claim middle class white men are losing jobs because of Equality Act

The Independent (2026). Reform accused of ‘pitching for votes of misogynists and homophobes’ with plans to scrap Equality Act