Reform will repeal the Equality Act if elected, says Braverman
Party also pledges to introduce ‘patriotic’ curriculum and end ‘trans chaos in the classroom’
Reform UK would repeal the Equality Act on “day one” of government if it wins the next general election, Suella Braverman has said.
Ms Braverman, who defected to Reform from the Tories last month, said Britain was being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies.
Speaking at an event in London where she was unveiled as Reform’s new shadow education, skills and equalities secretary, Ms Braverman said her first act in government would be to abolish the equalities part of her brief.
She said: “Why does no one in this Government seem to care that it’s white working-class boys who have the worst educational outcomes in our country today?
“Do you know what a Reform government will do? Well, on day one, we will get rid of the equalities department, we will scrap the equalities minister.
“And we will repeal the Equality Act, because we are going to work to build a country defined by meritocracy not tokenism, personal responsibility not victimhood, excellence not mediocrity, and unity not division.”
Calls to reform the Equality Act, introduced by Gordon Brown in the dying weeks of his administration in 2010, have grown in recent years as critics have argued it has become weaponised by activists.
The Act allows people to take forward claims for discrimination if they have one of nine protected characteristics, which include age, race and sexual orientation.
A report by campaign group Don’t Divide Us last year found the number of employment tribunals debating a claim of racial discrimination had tripled since 2017.
Writing in The Telegraph last April about the Equality Act, Ms Braverman said: “From its inception, the Act contained a fatal flaw: it elevated group identity over individual equality before the law.
“Rather than treating all citizens equally as individual British subjects – a principle at the very heart of our common-law tradition – it carved up the population into competing tribes.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Nigel Farage also unveiled Robert Jenrick as his shadow chancellor, Zia Yusuf as the shadow home secretary and Richard Tice, his deputy, as the shadow business secretary.
Reform is calling the titles “shadow” roles despite the fact that, strictly, such terminology is used by the official Opposition, currently the Conservative Party.
‘Patriotic, balanced curriculum’
Ms Braverman also pledged to introduce a patriotic curriculum as a Reform UK education secretary.
She said the education system was encouraging children to view Britain “with shame rather than pride” and accused universities of “failing our young people”.
Ms Braverman said: “A Reform government will deliver a patriotic, balanced curriculum which fosters a love of this great country.
“And it’s why a Reform government will bring an end to the transgender chaos in the classroom. Social and gender transitioning will be absolutely banned in all schools – no ifs, no buts. Meanwhile, too many of our universities are failing our young people.”
In recent years, some have claimed the education system promotes Left-wing ideology in classrooms, including the trans debate and teaching critical race theory and white privilege – which suggests white people have an inherent advantage on the basis of their race – as fact instead of as contested theories.
Last week, guidance published by Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, confirmed that children will be allowed to change their gender at school. Critics have long voiced concerns about children being taught that a woman can have a penis and that sex is assigned at birth instead of being a biological fact.
Ms Braverman also fired a warning shot at the higher education sector, saying: “To those universities that have descended into hotbeds of cancel culture, anti-Semitism, and which survive really thanks to the cash of foreign students, and keep conning young people into worthless degrees, Reform is putting you on notice.”
She also committed to half of all school leavers entering manual and vocational work, a mirror image of Sir Tony Blair’s ambition for one in two young people to go to university.
Meanwhile, after being named as Reform’s shadow chancellor, Mr Jenrick said cost of living challenges, tax rises and a ballooning welfare bill meant that ordinary Britons felt they had “nothing left” by the end of the week and that the “normal expectations of life” had become luxuries.
He promised to cut waste, restore “stability” to the economy and cut taxes, welfare spending and bills.
Mr Tice, who led Reform until Mr Farage’s return ahead of the 2024 general election, would be deputy prime minister and head up a new department for business, trade and energy.
He called for a “total focus of growth and prosperity”, vowing to tear up climate change legislation – which he called “net stupid zero” – and work with businessmen to create the right conditions for economic growth of up to four per cent year-on-year.
Mr Tice also promised to set up a “proper, serious” sovereign wealth fund to invest in British companies and buy and invest in British products in order to fund hundreds of thousands of affordable new homes.
Mr Yusuf, who was Reform’s chairman and then head of policy, was named Mr Farage’s home affairs spokesman. The son of migrants who had worked in the NHS for decades, he warned that the “sheer scale” of legal and illegal migration was untenable.
Reform pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights at the last general election, more than a year before the Tories eventually made the same promise.
The party has also committed to a one-in-one-out migration system, which it refers to as “net zero immigration”.
Reform continues to enjoy a comfortable lead of almost 10 points in the opinion polls, putting Mr Farage and his party on track to enter Downing Street at the next election.
Mr Farage said: “It’s time for the party to take the next step. Too often, the criticism over the last 20 months has been that we’re a one-man band, to which I generally respond by saying it’s better than being a no-man band. But the time has come to broaden the party, to put in place shadow positions, and that process begins today.”
The Conservatives denounced Mr Farage’s announcement of his top team as “underwhelming”.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chairman, said: “After months of infighting and leaks, Nigel Farage has unveiled a front bench dominated by ex-Conservatives – a line-up that looks more like a tribute act to the old Conservative Party than a credible alternative.
“Even now, some are already eyeing their next career move, while others who were clearly expecting promotion have been left out in the cold.”
Anna Turley, the Labour Party chairman, said: “Farage’s top team of failed Tories spent over 3,000 days inflicting untold damage on our country in government, trashing our economy, hammering families’ mortgages, and leaving our borders open.
“They failed Britain before – they’d do the same again under Reform. Today’s appointments clearly reveal that neither keeping our nation safe nor tackling NHS waiting lists are priorities for Farage or Reform UK.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/02/17/suella-braverman-pledges-to-introduce-patriotic-curriculum/
Reform UK would repeal the Equality Act on “day one” of government if it wins the next general election, Suella Braverman has said.
Ms Braverman, who defected to Reform from the Tories last month, said Britain was being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies.
Speaking at an event in London where she was unveiled as Reform’s new shadow education, skills and equalities secretary, Ms Braverman said her first act in government would be to abolish the equalities part of her brief.
She said: “Why does no one in this Government seem to care that it’s white working-class boys who have the worst educational outcomes in our country today?
“Do you know what a Reform government will do? Well, on day one, we will get rid of the equalities department, we will scrap the equalities minister.
“And we will repeal the Equality Act, because we are going to work to build a country defined by meritocracy not tokenism, personal responsibility not victimhood, excellence not mediocrity, and unity not division.”
Calls to reform the Equality Act, introduced by Gordon Brown in the dying weeks of his administration in 2010, have grown in recent years as critics have argued it has become weaponised by activists.
The Act allows people to take forward claims for discrimination if they have one of nine protected characteristics, which include age, race and sexual orientation.
A report by campaign group Don’t Divide Us last year found the number of employment tribunals debating a claim of racial discrimination had tripled since 2017.
Writing in The Telegraph last April about the Equality Act, Ms Braverman said: “From its inception, the Act contained a fatal flaw: it elevated group identity over individual equality before the law.
“Rather than treating all citizens equally as individual British subjects – a principle at the very heart of our common-law tradition – it carved up the population into competing tribes.”
At a press conference on Tuesday, Nigel Farage also unveiled Robert Jenrick as his shadow chancellor, Zia Yusuf as the shadow home secretary and Richard Tice, his deputy, as the shadow business secretary.
Reform is calling the titles “shadow” roles despite the fact that, strictly, such terminology is used by the official Opposition, currently the Conservative Party.
‘Patriotic, balanced curriculum’
Ms Braverman also pledged to introduce a patriotic curriculum as a Reform UK education secretary.
She said the education system was encouraging children to view Britain “with shame rather than pride” and accused universities of “failing our young people”.
Ms Braverman said: “A Reform government will deliver a patriotic, balanced curriculum which fosters a love of this great country.
“And it’s why a Reform government will bring an end to the transgender chaos in the classroom. Social and gender transitioning will be absolutely banned in all schools – no ifs, no buts. Meanwhile, too many of our universities are failing our young people.”
In recent years, some have claimed the education system promotes Left-wing ideology in classrooms, including the trans debate and teaching critical race theory and white privilege – which suggests white people have an inherent advantage on the basis of their race – as fact instead of as contested theories.
Last week, guidance published by Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, confirmed that children will be allowed to change their gender at school. Critics have long voiced concerns about children being taught that a woman can have a penis and that sex is assigned at birth instead of being a biological fact.
Ms Braverman also fired a warning shot at the higher education sector, saying: “To those universities that have descended into hotbeds of cancel culture, anti-Semitism, and which survive really thanks to the cash of foreign students, and keep conning young people into worthless degrees, Reform is putting you on notice.”
She also committed to half of all school leavers entering manual and vocational work, a mirror image of Sir Tony Blair’s ambition for one in two young people to go to university.
Meanwhile, after being named as Reform’s shadow chancellor, Mr Jenrick said cost of living challenges, tax rises and a ballooning welfare bill meant that ordinary Britons felt they had “nothing left” by the end of the week and that the “normal expectations of life” had become luxuries.
He promised to cut waste, restore “stability” to the economy and cut taxes, welfare spending and bills.
Mr Tice, who led Reform until Mr Farage’s return ahead of the 2024 general election, would be deputy prime minister and head up a new department for business, trade and energy.
He called for a “total focus of growth and prosperity”, vowing to tear up climate change legislation – which he called “net stupid zero” – and work with businessmen to create the right conditions for economic growth of up to four per cent year-on-year.
Mr Tice also promised to set up a “proper, serious” sovereign wealth fund to invest in British companies and buy and invest in British products in order to fund hundreds of thousands of affordable new homes.
Mr Yusuf, who was Reform’s chairman and then head of policy, was named Mr Farage’s home affairs spokesman. The son of migrants who had worked in the NHS for decades, he warned that the “sheer scale” of legal and illegal migration was untenable.
Reform pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights at the last general election, more than a year before the Tories eventually made the same promise.
The party has also committed to a one-in-one-out migration system, which it refers to as “net zero immigration”.
Reform continues to enjoy a comfortable lead of almost 10 points in the opinion polls, putting Mr Farage and his party on track to enter Downing Street at the next election.
Mr Farage said: “It’s time for the party to take the next step. Too often, the criticism over the last 20 months has been that we’re a one-man band, to which I generally respond by saying it’s better than being a no-man band. But the time has come to broaden the party, to put in place shadow positions, and that process begins today.”
The Conservatives denounced Mr Farage’s announcement of his top team as “underwhelming”.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Tory chairman, said: “After months of infighting and leaks, Nigel Farage has unveiled a front bench dominated by ex-Conservatives – a line-up that looks more like a tribute act to the old Conservative Party than a credible alternative.
“Even now, some are already eyeing their next career move, while others who were clearly expecting promotion have been left out in the cold.”
Anna Turley, the Labour Party chairman, said: “Farage’s top team of failed Tories spent over 3,000 days inflicting untold damage on our country in government, trashing our economy, hammering families’ mortgages, and leaving our borders open.
“They failed Britain before – they’d do the same again under Reform. Today’s appointments clearly reveal that neither keeping our nation safe nor tackling NHS waiting lists are priorities for Farage or Reform UK.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/02/17/suella-braverman-pledges-to-introduce-patriotic-curriculum/
