UK Equality Act Puts Identity Before Merit, Report Says
A new study calls for repealing Britain's Equality Act 2010, arguing it creates state-sanctioned discrimination favoring certain groups over individual merit and equal treatment.
The report, published by the Prosperity Institute, contends that what was originally presented as a straightforward modernization of anti-discrimination law has instead fundamentally reshaped hiring practices, public administration, workplace environments, and judicial interpretations of fairness and equal treatment across the United Kingdom, as The European Conservative reports.
According to the study’s findings, the Equality Act marked a decisive break from the traditional British principle of equality before the law, replacing it with a framework centered on protected identity categories and group-based outcomes rather than individual merit and treatment.
The report’s authors—educator Alka Sehgal Cuthbert and employment barrister Anna Loutfi—maintain that the 2010 legislation has become a primary engine driving diversity programs, positive action initiatives, and equality compliance mandates throughout British society.
The researchers argue that far from promoting genuine equality, the Act has institutionalized a form of justified discrimination that treats citizens differently based on their membership in designated protected groups rather than as equal individuals under the law.
This critique represents a significant challenge to one of the foundational pieces of equality legislation in modern Britain, questioning whether the framework has achieved its stated aims or instead entrenched new forms of unfairness in British institutions.
With information from The European Conservative
