The Conservatives want to scrap rules requiring public bodies such as schools and hospitals to consider promoting equality in their decisions.
In what the party described as the first step in a programme to “restore common sense”, Kemi Badenoch said the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) has resulted in some groups being “preferred over others”.
The Tory leader called for its repeal after warning public bodies have “spent so long worrying about institutional racism that they have become institutionally incompetent”.
Science Secretary Liz Kendall said the Conservatives’ plans would “turn the clock back”.
Speaking to Sky News, she claimed the Tories wanted to “repeal a duty which stops pregnant women being sacked, women on maternity leave being sacked”.
This sparked an angry response from the Conservatives, with shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho saying protections against discrimination were a “totally separate” part of the Equality Act and would remain in place under her party’s plan.
