Badenoch criticises Macpherson report and calls for more stop and search | Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch argued that Britain had gone down the wrong path after Macpherson’s groundbreaking report into the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and said it did not matter how many young black people were stopped and searched by police.

The Conservative leader made the comments as he announced plans to remove the obligation on public bodies to consider how they can promote equality, as he tries to thwart a challenge to his party from Reform UK.

Badenoch argued that the murders of three teenage girls in Southport, the Nottingham stabbings and the Manchester Arena bombings could have been stopped if public officials had not been afraid of being called racists, in a speech where he cited the incidents as examples of how far equality legislation has gone.

“All of these crimes could have been stopped if people had intervened instead of fearing being called racist,” he said.

Badenoch also used the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, who was falsely accused of racism by his killer, as a reason why he believed the Macpherson report, which emerged from the racially motivated 1993 murder of Lawrence, was misguided.

“The murder of Stephen Lawrence resulted in the influential Macpherson report, which aimed to put right what went wrong with policing in the 1990s,” Badenoch said.

“But in trying to do this, it also enshrined a principle that I believe is false: a racist incident is racist if it is perceived as racist by the victim or another person.”

“This might have made sense a long time ago in a different context, but today when we look at the response to the murder of Henry Nowak and the police’s admission that the killer was right to accuse Henry of racism, it is clear that the mere accusations are accepted as fact.”

The report ultimately evolved into the public sector equality duty (PSED), a legal requirement that forces public bodies to think about how they can improve society and promote equality in their day-to-day work, and which the Tory leader has pledged to eliminate.

Badenoch listed other examples where public institutions, including the police, felt they were prevented from doing their jobs because they were “conditioned to view minority status as victimization”.

Citing his party’s plans to triple stop and searches, he took aim at police guidance, making clear that people should be treated differently based on their protected characteristics, adding: “I’m afraid it doesn’t matter if more black children are searched, because it means more black lives will be saved.”

A report published earlier this year found that black people in some of London’s best-off areas were 48 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people.

In questions taken after his speech at the Government Think Tank Institute, Badenoch said more knives were found when black boys were searched and that it was the mothers of young black boys killed by their peers who told him they wanted to stop and search.

“I will not allow other people’s children to be killed while running away from screams to live a quiet life,” he added.

Before the speech, science secretary Liz Kendall said Badenoch’s plan to abolish PSED would “turn back the clock”.

“He says he wants to remove a duty that prevents the dismissal of pregnant women, prevents the dismissal of women on maternity leave, prevents discrimination against disabled people, prevents discrimination based on age,” she told Sky News.

Badenoch’s plans also triggered a backlash from those in the aid sector; Disability charity Sense described PSED as a “common sense safeguard” that enables public bodies to think about the impact of decisions on disabled people.

“For disabled people, this can mean the difference between gaining access to school, healthcare, transport or housing, or being left without these services altogether,” said the charity’s director of impact, Harriet Edwards.

“We call on politicians to not only maintain but also strengthen legislation that advances the rights of people with disabilities.”

Badenoch also took aim at staff networks established at public institutions to represent employees from Black, Asian, LGBTQ+ and other communities.