NewsBeat
Farage accused of ‘divisive politics’ over unproven claim white men are losing jobs because of Equality Act
Nigel Farage has been accused of “playing into short-sighted, divisive politics” after making unproven claims that middle-class, white men are losing jobs because of the Equality Act.
His claim came just a day after Suella Braverman, Reform UK’s new equality and education chief, promised to scrap the act on day one if her party won the next election, claiming that Britain is being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies.
The Equality Act 2010 – which replaced previous anti-discrimination laws – legally protects people with protected characteristics, including: age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
But the Reform leader claims those protections are to the detriment of white men.
Asked on Wednesday whether he could guarantee nobody would lose a job because of their sex, ethnicity or disability under his party’s plans to scrap the Equality Act, Mr Farage said: “Well, people are losing their jobs now, particularly if they are white, and male and middle-aged.
“And that’s the problem, that actually something that was designed to stop discrimination becomes in itself discriminatory. The protections you’re talking about were in law way before the 2010 Equalities Act.”
However, official figures from July to September 2025 appear to show that the opposite is true, with people from white ethnic backgrounds having lower rates of unemployment in the UK than those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
In this period, the UK unemployment rate for people from a white ethnic background was 4.3 per cent, an increase of 0.7 percentage points from the same period the previous year. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for people from minority ethnic backgrounds was 8.8 per cent, an increase of 0.6 percentage points from the same period the previous year.
And according to the 2021 census for England and Wales, people from White Irish and White British ethnic backgrounds had the lowest unemployment rates at 4.7 and 4.9 per cent respectively. People from Arab and Other Black ethnic backgrounds had the highest unemployment rates, at 14.3 per cent and 14.2 per cent, respectively.
Responding to Mr Farage’s remarks, Dr Shabna Begum, CEO of leading anti-racism charity the Runnymede Trust, hit out at Mr Farage’s comments, accusing him of “playing into short-sighted, divisive politics that does nothing to help anyone and instead breeds the politics of grievance and resentment”.
Dr Begum also took aim at Ms Braverman’s claim that the country is being “ripped apart by diversity, equality and inclusion” policies, dubbing it “inflammatory, divisive and quite frankly dishonest”.
She told The Independent: “At a time when racial and religiously motivated hate crimes and violence against women and girls are all steeply rising, it would be irresponsible to remove the few protections in place for those at risk.”
Meanwhile, Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), accused Mr Farage of “peddling made-up nonsense”.
“The Equality Act protects everyone at work – including white, middle-aged men – whether from age discrimination, religious discrimination or other unfair treatment”, he said.
“Let’s be clear about what’s really going on here. Reform wants to legalise discrimination and rip up hard-won workplace rights. That isn’t standing up for working people – it’s leaving people at the mercy of bad bosses. It’s a bully’s charter.”
James Douglas, legal director at the Good Law Project, accused Mr Farage of being “detached from both the law and reality”, telling The Independent: “Scrapping the Equality Act wouldn’t just take us back to 2010, it would reverse all the progress we’ve made since the 1970s.”
“Scare stories about white, middle-aged men losing their jobs don’t hide the fact that by opposing it, Reform have made clear that they don’t believe in equality”, he added.
And Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, who sits on the Women and Equalities Committee, warned Mr Farage that “rights are not finite”.
She said: “Protecting people who might be vulnerable because of their sex, ethnicity, or disability does not undermine anyone else’s rights.
“It simply creates a level playing field for all of us. Should we always be aware of how we can improve those protections in the act? Yes, but that’s very different from what Reform is suggesting.”
Mr Farage’s latest comments came after Ms Braverman, who was newly appointed as Reform’s head of education, skills and equalities, asked: “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?”
She added: “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.”
The MP for Fareham and Waterlooville also attacked the rights of transgender young people, saying that “social and gender transitioning will be banned in all schools, no ifs, no buts” if Reform comes to power.
She promised to “bring an end to the transgender chaos in schools”, claiming that children are “taught more about gender ideology than biological fact”.
Reform UK has been contacted for comment.