Suella Braverman has pledged that town halls run by Reform UK will strip out "woke" diversity schemes, with a programme launched by Staffordshire County Council set to serve as a template for more than 30 other Reform-led authorities across England. The move forms part of a wider effort by the party to reshape local government around what it calls "meritocracy" and "common sense", rolling back equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives it says have taken hold under successive governments.

At an event on Friday at JCB's Staffordshire headquarters, attended by dozens of Reform councillors, Staffordshire's leader Cllr Martin Murray set out plans to scrap all EDI training, disband identity-based staff groups, reset recruitment to be merit-based rather than using positive action, and axe "performative" awareness campaigns. Braverman, Reform's equalities spokesman, said officers may resist but urged councillors to "hold your nerve", while acknowledging that the Equality Act 2010 — which she wants repealed under a future Farage government — limits how far councils can go for now.