The former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley has insisted that meritocracy and equal opportunities are not sufficient to achieve a just society. He called for economic equality instead.

A disagreement has broken out between equalities, education and children's groups and Government minister Ed Balls over the Children, Schools and Families Bill’s amendments concerning Personal, Social and Health Education.

British Quakers have given a warm response to a call by the academic and writer Richard Wilkinson for a more economically equal society. Speaking at their annual conference in York, he insisted that more equal societies almost always do better.

C of E and the Catholic representatives have told the House of Commons they will fight to maintain their powers to discriminate in cases of employment and against limits proposed in the Equality Bill.