Pledge
“Labour will introduce a landmark Race Equality Act, to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority people, strengthen protections against dual discrimination and root out other racial inequalities”
Our verdict
A draft bill—the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill—was included in the King’s Speech in July 2024 but has not yet been formally introduced to Parliament.
The Equality Act 2010 brought together various anti-discrimination legislation to bar any unlawful treatment—discrimination, harassment or victimisation—on the basis of nine protected characteristics, including age, race, disability or sexual orientation.
Currently an equal pay claim can only be brought by claimants on the basis of a difference in pay between men and women, under the terms of the Equality Act. While pay disparities on the basis of another protected characteristic, such as race or disability, can be challenged, this is done through a claim of direct discrimination or indirect discrimination instead. This has led to concern that challenging pay disparities for characteristics other than sex is harder to achieve.
Under Labour’s proposals, equal pay claims on the basis of ethnicity or disability would be treated on a par with those made on the basis of sex.
The party also promised in its manifesto to “strengthen protections” against ‘dual discrimination’—when a person is discriminated against on the basis of a combination of two protected characteristics.
The Equality Act included a provision of ‘dual discrimination’ to allow a person to bring a single claim of discrimination due to a combination of specific individual protected characteristics, such as being an older woman. However, the provision of ‘dual discrimination’ has not yet been brought into force, although the government has committed to doing so.
It’s not clear if Labour’s promise to “strengthen protections against dual discrimination” means enacting this provision, or something else. When we asked the Cabinet Office for more information on this in August 2025, it didn’t provide further specifics but said it was considering consultation responses on how to strengthen protections against dual discrimination.
Labour’s manifesto also said the legislation would “root out other racial inequalities”, although it did not give more detail on this point. We have also asked the Cabinet Office about this.
The proposed bill is likely to apply to England, Wales and Scotland, as equalities law is largely devolved in Northern Ireland.
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A draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill was included in the King’s Speech in July 2024, which set out the government’s legislative priorities for its first parliamentary session.
This draft bill, the government said in July 2024, would deliver on its “manifesto commitments to enshrine in law the full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people and to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting”.
It appears then that the Race Equality Act, as outlined in Labour’s manifesto, has been renamed as the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, and has incorporated other manifesto commitments, such as pay reporting. A Cabinet Office spokesperson confirmed to Full Fact in August 2025 there was no plan to introduce a separate Race Equality Act.
While the draft bill has yet to be published or introduced to Parliament, a consultation on measures included in the bill has concluded. For this reason, we are currently rating this pledge as “in progress”.
In July 2024, the government said its draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill would “enshrine in law” the right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people, “making it much easier for them to bring unequal pay claims”, as well as introduce “mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting” for firms with more than 250 employees.
A consultation on mandatory pay reporting was open between March and June 2025. In March 2025, equalities minister Seema Malhotra MP said the government was “considering what other measures the draft Bill could incorporate” and that a call for evidence would be “published separately”, which would “include consideration of how we make the right to equal pay effective for ethnic minority and disabled people”. This call for evidence ran from April to June 2025.
Ms Malhotra also said the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill would be “published later in this Session”.
We have asked the Women and Equalities Unit, part of the Cabinet Office, for further details on when exactly the bill would be published and will update this article if it provides us with a timeframe.
As we develop this Government Tracker we’re keen to hear your feedback. We’ll be keeping the Tracker up to date and adding more pledges in the coming months.
Progress displayed publicly—so every single person in this country can judge our performance on actions, not words.
Sir Keir Starmer, Prime Minister – 24 September 2024