The Conservatives are busy trying to rebrand themselves as the equality party. David Cameron has said he wants the Tories’ selection process – his A-list – to deliver a greater diversity of candidates. Consultants have been hired to make Central Office a gay-friendly place to work. Hardly a week goes by without a speech by Cameron insisting how at ease his party is with the diversity of modern Britain.
How should we respond to this makeover? History tells us that the public should be sceptical about this Conservative conversion: whereas tackling discrimination has been central to Labour values since we formed over 100 years ago, their record is dire. It Labour who passed the first Race Relations Act 40 years ago. And it was the Tories who introduced and promoted section 28. The only piece of positive equality legislation that the Tories bought in was the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995.
In 1997, it was Labour who inherited a deeply unequal and divided society where progress for women had stalled. Since then, we have reduced child and pensioner poverty and increased employment. We also set about modernising the legal framework on equalities in line with changing public attitudes and the diversity of Britain. There was no Disability Rights Commission until 1999. This time last year there were no civil partnerships: Nearly 7,000 civil partnerships have already been registered in the UK.
Four years ago working parents of young children had no right to request flexible working. They do now: in just four years the percentage of new mothers working flexibly has gone from 17 to 47 per cent. Yet, when we first proposed these measures, just like on increases to maternity leave and the introduction of paternity leave, we were opposed by the Tories.
Has Cameron really begun to change the Tories’ spots when it comes to equality? The party encourages its spokespeople to write for Pink News and the Voice. There are even some Conservative MPs for whom equality does matter. There remains a fundamental tension between the Conservative party and their marketing strategy.
The Tory leader has said the test of whether change in his party was real and lasting lay in the candidates it selects and that selecting more women was at the top of his agenda. Yet, the A-list isn’t compulsory and Cameron has struggled to persuade his party to reform. He has talked about a transformation of work but seems to think this will happen without any action. The makeover is, after all, skin-deep.
Labour governments have been prepared to take the tough decisions when needed. And, as a result, the UK has the most comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in Europe. Our commitment to protection for every citizen is enshrined in the Human Rights Act. Following the biggest review of equality law of the last 25 years, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights – underpinned by the forthcoming Single Equality Act – will from October 2007, provide a powerful and practical single point of contact on equalities.
Having delivered this architecture, Labour needs to be candid about the limits of legislation and the persistent inequalities that the law has failed to tackle. We must meet the challenges that lie ahead: an aging population, changes in the global market which will benefit certain skills and increasing knowledge about the factors that determine life chances.
We must remain prepared to change the law to change culture and behaviour when it is right to do so. That is why, in the new year, we will introduce the new gender duty on public services, and why we will bring in regulations to deal with discrimination in the provision of goods and services in relation to sexual orientation and religion and belief.
But we must also place greater focus on tangible outcomes that we want. For example, Labour has made progress since 1997, reducing the pay gap between men and women from over 17 per cent in 1992, to under 13 per cent now. More needs to be done. But to get the right outcomes we need to ensure that those people – mainly women – who opt for part time work, do not constantly pay a penalty for doing so. Crucially, as our recent women and work action plan concluded, this means significantly increasing the availability of quality part time work that is available. And we are working with business and the unions to deliver real culture change in this area: through equality representatives, through encouraging employers to become exemplars and through voluntary equality checks.
Likewise, our action plan set out the measures we are taking to ensure that children get non-stereotyped careers advice at school. For the law alone will not change the choices children make at school that create occupational segregation and drive pay outcomes. We need a transparent and tough discrimination framework that is accessible to all but if we are to tackle some of the persistent inequalities still with us – for example that faced by Bangladeshi and Pakistani women – we must also support women in addressing the barriers they face in their own communities.
So we need to continue to insist upon the important role of the law and will ensure that the new Single Equality Act and new body deliver greater efficiency and access. And we should be equally clear about where other interventions make the difference to people’s life chances, whether this is the education they receive, the income of their family or the health services they have access to.
Finally, we believe that the relocation of the equalities brief to the new Department for Communities and Local Government provides an opportunity to extend the equalities agenda far beyond the courtroom and into communities.
For example, local government is responding better to the needs of people with disabilities, including mobility related needs. We now must ensure that services are flexible and responsive enough to cater for people’s differing needs. We also know that – just like income and rights – democracy and voice are not evenly distributed and are vital for shaping local decision-making and services. The local government white paper includes a requirement for local authorities to seek out the views of the most disadvantaged in their area and take action.
One of the challenges for Labour is to respond more effectively to the changes that people are experiencing locally and the increased ethnic and religious diversity of the UK. These issues play out on the national stage and it is right that people who experience racism or hate crimes have legal protection and redress. But, often, what really changes relationships for the better is action at a neighbourhood level. The Commission on Integration and Cohesion is finding out about the best practice on the ground, seeking to understand what helps create strong communities able to cope with rapid change.
Thanks to Labour we are entering a new phase of the equalities agenda. We have paved the way for a new legal framework that will serve the next 40 years. To succeed, we must also recognize that the complexities of the modern world, and our greater understanding of what makes certain inequalities more stubborn than others, requires us be more ambitious on what it is we are seeking to change.