Equalities Committee Chair Warns UK Not "Immune" To US Anti-Diversity Drive

Zoe Crowther

@zoenora6

Soon after returning to the White House for his second term as president, Trump signed executive orders to end and cut funding to DEI programmes across the US federal government. Several large US private companies, including Meta, McDonald's and Walmart, have abolished or scaled back their own DEI programmes since Trump’s election.

The Labour government has been keen to develop close ties with the Trump administration — particularly to influence the president's thinking on the Ukraine war, as well as to avoid the UK being impacted by the president's policy of imposing tariffs on imports. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's trip to Washington on Thursday was widely regarded as a diplomatic success on the day. In between warm words about one another, Trump said there was a "very good chance" of a trade deal eliminating the need for tariffs on UK goods, and happily accepted an invitation from King Charles to make a second state visit to Britain. 

The positivity in London evaporated 24 hours later, however, when Trump and his vice president JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an extraordinary Oval Office exchange, just as Starmer and other European leaders were attempting to persuade the US to give Ukraine security guarantees. 

As Starmer attempts to tread a fine diplomatic line with the White House, there are concerns among some MPs and trade unions that Trump’s approaches to domestic policy could have an impact on UK political life.

Last week, leading tech union Prospect wrote to the women and equalities committee asking it to look into concerns that US multinational companies are using US policy changes to undermine their DEI obligations in the UK.

Sarah Owen, Labour MP and chair of the committee, told PoliticsHome that the UK is “never immune to what happens in America”.

Owen said it was inevitable that multinational American organisations would have to “carry this anti-DEI, anti-woke working to here”. She argued this had already affected UK citizens due to changes made at Meta’s Facebook platform and Elon Musk’s X, where both social media companies have slashed DEI schemes and cut back on fact-checking and moderation.

While there is little indication that the Labour government is considering abolishing DEI schemes, the current Conservative leadership has indicated its support for Trump’s approach.

In a speech to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference earlier this month, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch suggested that DEI schemes were “distracting” from fighting for “classic liberal values”.

“This is the real poison of left-wing progressivism, whether it’s pronouns or DEI or climate activism,” she said.

“These issues aren’t about kindness. They are about control. We have limited time, and every second spent debating what a woman is, is a second lost from dealing with these challenges.”

In Owen’s view, “nobody wins” in what she described as culture wars: “There's this whole idea that being woke or being or being supportive of DEI is somehow weak or ‘snowflake’, and actually it's not.

“It is the exact opposite: you have to be some of the toughest people to have fought for those rights and to have won those rights, you have to fight to just be who you are in a space that doesn't always recognise your value or your worth, and that, to me, is anti-weakness.”

Does Owen worry that Trump’s presidency could lead to an erosion of women’s rights across the world? “We might be more united,” she said.

“When people think it’s not going to affect me, it will. And that sharpens minds. It shows people that progress isn't inevitable, that even in somewhere like America, where we would feel that we have common values and common aims, they are taking huge steps backwards.”

International Women’s Day will be celebrated around the world on 8 March and Owen plans to travel to New York for the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) the following week.

Owen told PoliticsHome it was important for UK politicians to attend the convention to both help further the cause of women’s equality abroad while also showcasing progress in the UK.

“Our international reputation depends very much on what we're doing here,” she said, explaining that in a “globalised society”, international collaboration will be needed to protect women and girls from non-consensual and intimate image abuse and AI fake pornography.

The Labour MP also expressed concern about the rise of far-right parties in Europe, with the AFD having come second in the German general election. Polling shows that both the AFD and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK are gaining in popularity among young men in particular.

In the UK, groups of Labour MPs are advocating for different approaches to fend off Reform – but Owen said she did not think this was the right approach.

“Many are perhaps mistaking taking the fight to Reform with answering their questions,” she said.

“Actually they're not the questions that are on everybody's lips at the moment. They're not what people are really concerned about on the doorstep.”

She described Reform as going after the “headline” without “any detail” when it comes to policy.

“We [Labour] were elected to be the grown ups to sort out the economy, but also we've got to get a handle on how we sort out the fabric of our society as well,” Owen said, adding that she wanted the government to take community cohesion “as seriously as the growth agenda”. 

"An economy, to me, isn't the only thing that makes a country work. We've seen a decline in the fabric of our society and the structures that were in place to enable that engagement and those sometimes difficult conversations to take place in a really proactive understanding and safe space.”

Owen pointed to her committee as an example of a space where difficult conversations could be had, having held a recent inquiry into puberty blockers.

“My committee is made up of people that are of very, very, very different opinions, I even had a panel of endocrinologists [doctors specialising in hormones] that didn't agree, but we were able to have that discussion in a respectful way,” Owen said.

“It takes time, it takes trust, and not saying the first thing that comes into your head. We've forgotten how to do that as a society.”

In December, Owen’s committee also opened an inquiry into community cohesion. In an evidence session, former counter-extremism commissioner Dame Sara Khan told the committee that the UK is at “chronic risk of witnessing democratic decline”. Interfaith campaigners recently told PoliticsHome that relations between different faith groups in the UK remain fragile following the conflict in Gaza.

Khan described how the riots last summer following the Southport attack showed community tensions were highest in areas of greater deprivation, but that when many local authorities are struggling financially, “one of the very first things that will be cut is social cohesion efforts”. 

According to Khan, senior officials told her that the government also “do not know how to respond to conspiracy theories and disinformation”.

Owen decided to delete her own X account as a result of rampant misinformation and hate speech on the platform – and it is clear she believes the government has a long way to go before it can bring the major tech platforms to heel.

Where should the government start? “We've got to look at where money is coming from into British politics in order to mitigate the risk,” Owen said.

"You will never eliminate it, but to mitigate it we need to do that, particularly now at this heightened time where we are seeing elections being interfered or influenced from other countries."

A report by Transparency International UK in December found that £1 in every £10 donated to UK political parties since 2001 has come from “unknown or questionable sources”.

"We need to protect our British democracy as best we can from that," Owen said.

Related

Vice Chancellor Attacks "Politically Motivated" Investigation After University Gets Record Fine Over Free Speech Row

By Adam Payne

26 Mar