Latest news with #DontDivideUs
Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
The Equality Act is a gift to grifters, and Labour wants to make it worse
As an undergraduate student, I welcomed the passage of the 2010 Equality Act. As a young minority 'progressive' of Bangladeshi Muslim heritage, I championed the fact that ethnicity and religious belief were enshrined as protected characteristics in British law. But times have changed. A new report published by campaign group Don't Divide Us (DDU) has – quite rightly in my view – identified the Equality Act as a piece of legislation which is contributing towards a more divided and fractured Britain. The research has found that over the last decade, there has been an explosion in the number of tribunal cases for racial discrimination – yet, only one in 20 claims were successful. The educationalist and director of DDU, Dr Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, has labelled the Equality Act the cornerstone of a grievance culture which is all too ready to resort to 'lawfare' to resolve low-level disputes and imagined slights on the grounds of identity. It has become increasingly apparent that the Equality Act – which should have been a shield to protect people from genuine forms of discrimination – has been used as a sword by those who are anything but interested in the equality of opportunity. This accelerated following the emergence of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in the UK, which was ultimately America-brained radical-progressive activism in a part of the world which had some of the most robust anti-discrimination protections on the grounds of race, ethnicity, and religion. The rise of the unholy trinity of diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) has threatened to undo much of the incredible progress we have made when it comes to race relations. The pendulum has swung so far in the other direction, minorities have increasingly become the beneficiaries of preferential treatment – often at the expense of white-British men. The Equality Act, and its offshoots such as the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and Positive Action programmes, has not brought us greater fairness, equality, and harmony. In fact, it has been weaponised in a manner which is diametrically opposed to such ideals. While there will be many on the contemporary British Left who remain incredibly protective over the Equality Act, it is perhaps in their interests to be honest over its impact and explore whether certain provisions should be tightened (if not repealed). While the PSED's current provisions state that public authorities have due regard to the need to 'foster good relations between people', this is overly vague and nebulous – there should be an explicit expectation for such bodies and agencies to promote economic, social, and cultural integration. Positive action schemes are supposed to develop the skills of people from 'underrepresented' or 'disadvantaged' groups – but the obsession with race and sexual orientation means that disability is all too often overlooked. To be blunt, it is not viewed as a 'fashionable' protected characteristic by many 'social-justice' activists. The alternative, of course, is doing away with the Equality Act altogether – which is unlikely to happen under a Labour government which wants to bring in a Race Equality Act, doubling down on the original legislation. But it could be a future manifesto pledge for parties of the Right. It could be scrapped in its entirety or replaced with a fresh Equality of Opportunity legislation which has a strong emphasis on regional inequality and seeks to address cultural deprivation in left-behind communities. As currently constituted, the Equality Act's future is far from certain. And so-called 'anti-racists' who have pursued the equality of outcome over opportunity, only have themselves to blame.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Equality Act fuels massive rise in race discrimination cases
The Equality Act has fuelled a massive rise in racial discrimination tribunals, a report has found. The number of employment tribunals debating a claim of racial discrimination has tripled since 2017, while the proportion of successful claims has remained static. The campaign group Don't Divide Us said it proved that the Equality Act was contributing significantly to a divided Britain. The organisation's report found that the number of tribunal applications for race discrimination cases had shot up from 165 in 2016-17 to 1,201 in 2023-24 – a seven-fold increase. The number of cases reaching tribunals rose from 285 to 829 over the same period. But over the whole period, just 5 per cent of claims were successful – and this figure has remained relatively static. Dr Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, the campaign group's director, and lead author of the report, said the Equality Act undermined English case law and contributed to a grievance culture in which people resorted to 'lawfare' to resolve petty disputes and imagined slights. 'The Equality Act has achieved the exact opposite of its stated aim, making the UK a less tolerant and less equal place,' she said. 'It provides the legal scaffolding that supports this surge in workplace discrimination claims, the overwhelming majority of which have been found groundless. 'Instead of bringing greater fairness, equality, and harmony, the Equality Act has been a major vector for curtailing the fundamental freedoms for citizens to speak their mind, and to appear before the law as equal. 'As we examine in our case studies and analysis section, the Act has handed inordinate power to those making malicious and bogus claims, or to thin-skinned people wilfully misinterpreting perfectly innocent comments or interactions.' The Equality Act was passed in 2010 in the dying weeks of Gordon Brown's Labour government. It allowed people to take forward claims for discrimination if they had one of nine protected characteristics, which includes race. Don't Divide Us called on the Government to consider repealing the Equality Act. Their report found that, despite the huge increase in tribunals, the vast majority of cases fail. Between 2017 and 2024, the proportion of cases which were upheld fluctuated from 4 per cent to 7 per cent. Group calls for Act's repeal Anna Loutfi, an equality and human rights barrister who co-authored the report, said the Equality Act was a 'spectacularly unsuccessful attempt at social engineering by the state' which undermines centuries of English common law. 'The Equality Act's prioritisation of subjective rather than objective tests is contributing to increasing fractiousness in workplace culture and relationships,' she said. 'Far from reducing racial tension and disparity, the Act and its offshoots, including the Public Sector Equality Duty and Positive Action programmes, are entrenching division. 'In pivoting the law away from prohibiting discrimination towards ensuring ill-defined equality', the EA 2010 has opened the door to political engineering. 'The Act was never oriented towards the pursuit of racial equality; instead, it has driven a 'mission creep' of continuously expanding rights, which has the opposite effect from that intended. 'We urge the Government to conduct a review into the Equality Act 2010, with a view to eventual repeal.'
Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Times
Equality Act blamed for surge in failed race discrimination cases
Equality laws are causing unsuccessful racial discrimination lawsuits to 'skyrocket', and more claims are made by NHS employees than those from any other organisation, according to a report. Between 2017 and last year the number of employment tribunals that included a claim of discrimination based on the defined characteristic of 'race' in the Equality Act 2010 almost tripled, from 285 to 829, research by the campaign group Don't Divide Us has found. In total, there were 5,523 cases over this period. Despite the rise in workplace discrimination cases, the levels of success have remained more or less unchanged since 2017, the report says. Only 281 claims were upheld in employment courts from 2017 to 2024, 5 per cent of those made. The group said the NHS was involved in more discrimination cases than any other employer, with 488 claims made in the period — of which 19, or 4 per cent, were upheld. Don't Divide Us believes in 'colour-blind anti-racism' and campaigns against 'divisive' political ideas such as critical race theory being imported from America. The findings have been published as part of a wider report on equality laws by the organisation entitled 'The Equality Act Isn't Working: Equalities Legislation and the Breakdown of Informal Civility in the Workplace'. It argues that rather than making society more equal and tackling discrimination, the Equality Act has contributed to a grievance culture in which people resort to legal action to resolve 'petty disputes and imagined slights'. The report says the remit of equality law has come under increasing pressure from lobby groups seeking to 'promote their role in the race-relations sector'. This trend has been exacerbated by the rise of identity politics and the increased politicisation of culture, it adds. Anna Loutfi, one of the report's authors and a barrister specialising in employment, equalities and human rights law, said it was time for the government to review the Equality Act and potentially repeal it. She said: 'The question is: Do we need the law to be based on protected characteristics? The reality of the workplace is that it is not neatly categorisable into people who 'share' protected characteristics and people who don't, though equality law demands that we think that way. 'Equality law is increasingly becoming divorced from reality, as employees rely on protected characteristics to argue poor treatment, rather than relying on the honest facts of their situation. Many litigants may try to rewrite the facts of their case to 'fit' a narrative of discrimination based on race, sex, disability etc. A cross word between two employees of different ethnic backgrounds can be transformed into racial harassment after the fact. 'The inadvertent effect of the Equality Act is to make the workplace environment more toxic, especially when it comes to issues such as race, between people who would have rubbed along fine before becoming aware of their respective 'protected characteristics'. 'Overall, protected characteristics in law are not adding to social cohesion; rather, they are inflating numbers of discrimination cases so society appears more and more discriminatory with every passing year, in spite of ever more diversity and inclusion initiatives — that surely can't be right.' Under the Equality Act, it is against the law to discriminate against someone based on nine protected characteristics. These include age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. • Loutfi pointed to a recent case in April of a black female employee suing her boss for racism because it had been suggested she had been 'smoking something', which, she said, epitomised the way such protected characteristics were being 'weaponised' in the workplace. In the dispute, Gemma Spencer sued her employers for race discrimination when a company director, Mark Kelly, asked her line manager if she had been 'smoking something' after a perceived error. Spencer, an administration worker, told a panel that she had had her hair in braids when Kelly made the remark. After she accused him of racism, Kelly said he in 'no way meant to make some remark about her being a Rastafarian'. His assertion was rejected by the judge, who said the comment was 'unwanted conduct' that 'violated the dignity' of Spencer, who was awarded £35,109 in compensation. Alka Sehgal Cuthbert, director of Don't Divide Us, said: 'The Equality Act has achieved the exact opposite of its stated aim, making the UK a less tolerant and less equal place. It provides the legal scaffolding that supports this surge in workplace discrimination claims, the overwhelming majority of which have been found groundless. 'Instead of bringing greater fairness, equality, and harmony, the [Equality Act] has been a major vector for curtailing the fundamental freedoms for citizens to speak their mind, and to appear before the law as equal.' • Calling female staff 'lads' could be sex harassment, judge says The Equality and Human Rights Commission said: 'We have a statutory duty to monitor and advise on the effectiveness of our equality laws. While progress has been made towards a fairer country, we know challenges to equality remain and our society has not stood still. 'Increases in litigation may indicate an issue with how the legislation is being interpreted, and we consider all evidence carefully when we advise government and parliamentarians on the effectiveness of the Equality Act. However, a post-legislative review of the Equality Act is a decision for the UK government and parliament.' A government spokesperson said: 'The UK has a longstanding history of tackling all forms of discrimination and harassment. 'We are proud of the Equality Act 2010 and the rights and protections it affords individuals of all backgrounds, and will continue to uphold its provisions.'
