Farage accused of ‘divisive politics’ over unproven claim middle class white men are losing jobs because of Equality Act

Reform leader’s claims appear at odds with official figures, which show that people from white ethnic backgrounds have lower rates of unemployment than those from minority ethnic backgrounds NewsUKUK PoliticsFarage accused of ‘divisive politics’ over unproven claim middle class white men are losing jobs because of Equality ActReform leader’s claims appear at odds with official figures, which show that people from white ethnic backgrounds have lower rates of unemployment than those from minority ethnic backgroundsMillie Cooke Political Correspondent Wednesday 18 February 2026 16:09 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverFarage promotes Jenrick and Braverman as he unveils new Reform front benchYour support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. 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We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreNigel 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. open image in galleryMiddle-aged white men are losing jobs because of the Equality Act, Nigel Farage has claimed (Getty)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 d