NEW race laws pitched by Labour “will set people against each other” and choke businesses in red tape, Kemi Badenoch warns.
The Business Secretary hit out over plans by the Opposition to extend the equal pay laws to all ethnic minorities.
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Mrs Badenoch, who also heads up Equalities, said: “It is obviously already illegal to pay someone less because of their race.”
And she warned any “new law would be a bonanza for dodgy, activist lawyers”.
Labour said that they would pass a radical race equality act if they win power at this year’s election.
Shadow Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds said: “Inequality has soared under the Tories and too many black, Asian and ethnic minority families are working harder and harder for less.
“This is holding back their families and holding back the economy.”
She said Labour would phase in protections for workers similar to equal pay rights for women.
But Mrs Badenoch said it was a waste of time as they are already protected and “see millions wasted on pointless red tape” in “a disaster for businesses, large and small”.
She added: “Voting anything but Conservative in 2024 means voting for all the bad ideas Labour pushed for over the last decade, gliding on to the statute book.”
In an attack on her opposite number, she said Labour “focus on fake problems because they have no answers to the real challenges facing our country and the world”.
She added: “Labour do not have a plan to make the UK better. They will spend all their time on credulous proposals that sound good but will make everything worse.”
