British businesses face a greater risk of legal action if they follow their US counterparts in ditching efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the wake of Donald Trump’s return to office, the UK’s leading authority on employment law has warned.

The Employment Lawyers Association (ELA), which has 7,000 members, has said British companies could open themselves up to “adverse findings of discrimination” if they unpick policies designed to enable diversity equity and inclusion (DEI).

In an open letter to businesses, Caspar Glyn KC, the chair of the ELA, said that defending a company against discriminatory acts made by an employee was already difficult but “would be hopeless” without DEI policies in place.

Glyn also said employers without DEI policies would be unlikely to be able to demonstrate that they had taken “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, for example, which they are legally required to do. The employment rights bill, due to be approved by parliament, will strengthen that requirement.

Trump has prompted a rollback of DEI programmes in the US, after he signed a series of executive orders overturning such measures.

Several large US corporations, including Walmart, McDonald’s, Ford and Amazon, have either scrapped or are scaling back their DEI schemes.

Fears have grown that UK companies could follow suit. The Bank of England’s regulatory arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority, and the Financial Conduct Authority have said they would not bring...

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