Has Mark Hoban just become the first victim of the New Labour landmines? He was asked on
the Today Programme whether the Treasury had conducted a formal study assessing the impact of the cuts on ethnic
minorities. Hoban was speechless – as well you might be. But the assessment, he was told, is required under Harriet Harman’s Equalities Act. Has it been carried out? He avoided the question and was
asked it again. And so it continued, a la Paxman v Howard.
When Labour retreated, it sewed several landmines in the political territory it was about to cede. One of them was Harman’s Equalities Act, which – as Pete blogged a while ago – mandates government “to consider how decisions might help to reduce inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage”.
What might this mean? Crucially, it means all government decisions – including Budgets – are now open to judicial review if someone can argue that anything hits the poor.
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