Labour has been slapped down after announcing a new woke pledge of full equal pay rights for ethnic minorities. Announced yesterday, Sir Keir promised to enshrine equal pay for black, Asian and ethnic minority people in law.
The move would replicate equal pay laws for women, whose currently have stronger protections than other groups. However Tory equalities secretary Kemi Badenoch said the move would be a “bonanza for dodgy, activist lawyers”.
Ms Badenoch warned the new race law will “set people against each other and see millions wasted on pointless red tape”. She added: “It is obviously already illegal to pay someone less because of their race.”
This afternoon, a post on X by the Labour leader also received a humiliating fact check, pointing out a law already exists that bans paying black workers less than others.
Sir Keir tweeted a photo of him with Doreen Lawrence, captioned: “Labour’s Race Equality Act will extend full equal pay rights to Black, Asian, ethnic minority and disabled workers for the first time”.
Social media users have now added a “context community note”, explaining to readers: “The Equal Pay Act and Equality Act already provides a legal framework that makes it unlawful to pay or treat employees differently / offer them different terms / conditions because of their sex, age, race, disability, religion or other protected characteristics”.
Many users leapt on the obvious policy oversight, with one asking: “Why are they proposing an act when legislation already exists?”
Another queried: “Are we recycling laws now for new headlines?”
Ms Badenoch, who is also Business Secretary, warned that voting labour will mean “bad ideas I’ve blocked time and time again… gliding onto the statute book”, and warned it would be a “disaster” for businesses.
“They focus on fake problems because they have no answers to the real challenges facing our country and the world.”
She was joined by Home Office minister Laura Farris, who similarly pointed out: “It is already unlawful to pay someone less because of their race or ethnicity and has been so for nearly half a century since the passage of the Race Relations Act 1976”.
Labour’s shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds said Labour will also root out racial inequalities by “setting a target to close the maternity mortality gap”, while also “requiring large employers to report on ethnicity pay gaps”. The party also plans to overhaul police standards and measure public confidence in the police.
