Holyrood Election 2026: Which manifesto delivers on race equality?
Ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, CRER reviews party manifestos against its own Manifesto for an Anti-Racist Scotland — assessing how each party measures up on race equality and anti-racism.
All major political parties have now published their manifestos ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election. These documents set out competing visions for Scotland’s future and indicate the extent to which race equality is reflected in political priorities.
Manifestos cover devolved areas of policy that directly affect minority ethnic communities in Scotland, including poverty, housing, employment, health, education, justice and public services. This blog highlights specific commitments relevant to race equality and anti-racism, drawing on manifesto content from the six parties currently represented in the Scottish Parliament.
This analysis focuses on specific proposals rather than broad statements of intent. It does not seek to assess the likely effectiveness of individual policies, but instead examines where race equality is explicitly addressed, where commitments may have indirect relevance, and where significant gaps remain. This is an initial pre-election analysis, with more detailed work to follow the results of the election.
Last year, CRER published its Manifesto for an Anti-Racist Scotland, setting out eight practical actions for political parties to adopt in their own programmes. These were:
Target action against racial inequality in child poverty
Invest in social housing to address the impact of high rent and overcrowding on BME families
Achieve equal representation for BME people in the public sector workforce
Introduce mandatory recording of racist incidents and bullying in Scotland's schools
Target health inequalities by tracking ethnicity through the healthcare system
Focus on early intervention to prevent inequalities for BME people with severe mental illness
Promote community cohesion through the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015
Support Scotland's Museum of Empire, Slavery, Colonialism and Migration
What follows is a thematic overview of how party manifestos align, or fail to align, with those priorities.
Race equality policy and anti-racism
A defining issue in 2026 is whether parties approach racism as a structural issue requiring targeted action, or as a broader equality concern addressed through general policy.
The Scottish Greens set out the most explicit anti-racism programme. Their manifesto includes implementation of Scotland-focused recommendations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a Structural Racism Reviewto examine how public policy produces discriminatory outcomes. They also pledged to review anti-racist education across schools, policing and public institutions, as part of their response to increasing hate crimes.
The SNP’s commitments are embedded across wider human rights, health and inclusion agendas rather than framed as a distinct race equality policies. While this includes relevant measures, it provides less clarity on accountability for delivery.
Scottish Labour acknowledges racism, committing to challenging racial and religious prejudice through education and wider equality measures. However, this is their only direct race-specific policy commitment within the manifesto.
The Scottish Liberal Democrats include commitments to tackle antisemitism, Islamophobia and Hinduphobia, alongside broader action against discrimination and hate speech.
By contrast, the Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK provide no explicit race equality policy. Neither manifesto mentions anti-racism or references to structural racial inequality.
Overall, there is clear variation in whether race equality is explicitly discussed across policy areas, included within commitments, if it is subsumed within wider narratives of fairness or conspicuously absent entirely.
Poverty and economic inequality
CRER’s manifesto calls for targeted action against racial inequality in child poverty.
Poverty reduction is central to most party manifestos, but ethnicity-specific approaches remain limited.
Labour, the SNP and the Greens all propose broader anti-poverty interventions, including measures on social security, wages and household costs. However, few commitments explicitly recognise the disproportionate impact of poverty on minority ethnic communities or propose targeted solutions.
This reflects a longstanding challenge: universal anti-poverty measures may improve overall outcomes, but without focused action they risk overlooking racialised inequalities.
The absence of race-specific child poverty strategies remains a significant gap in relation to CRER’s benchmark.
Housing
CRER calls for investment in social housing to address the impact of high rents and overcrowding on BME families.
Housing features prominently across manifestos, particularly around affordability and supply. The SNP, Labour and Greens all commit to expanding social housing provision. These commitments may indirectly benefit communities disproportionately affected by poor housing conditions. However, explicit recognition of unequal housing outcomes for minority ethnic households or action to address this is absent.
As in previous election cycles, housing is treated primarily as a universal issue rather than one requiring targeted action.
Employment and workforce representation
CRER’s manifesto calls for equal representation for BME people in the public sector workforce.
Although manifestos do not engage with public sector representation, more broadly we do see some anti-racist commitments on employment.
The SNP proposes support for minority ethnic founders through its Journey Fund, aimed at founders moving beyond early-stage business development.
The Greens commit to tackling workplace inequalities, supporting migrant workers’ rights, and improving access to employment pathways for New Scots. They also committed to supporting increased representation of minority ethnic groups within the arts.
The Liberal Democrats include support for disadvantaged entrepreneurs and workforce inclusion, though through broad discussions of fairness rather than any race-specific targeting.
Labour and the Conservatives frame employment primarily through economic growth and skills development, with limited direct attention to workforce diversity. Within the Conservative manifesto, the only discussion of workforce diversity is the proposed ban on “woke” equality and diversity roles within the public sector.
No major party sets out a comprehensive public sector representation strategy equivalent to CRER’s call for measurable progress on BME representation.
Education
There is clearer alignment with education policy and anti-racist priorities.
CRER calls for mandatory recording of racist incidents and bullying in Scotland’s schools. Whilst this does not feature within the manifestos, education remains a policy area where progress is visible, but commitments vary substantially in scope and specificity.
The Greens commit to anti-racist education across Scotland and stronger reporting mechanisms for Islamophobia and religious hatred in educational settings.
Labour proposes challenging racial and religious prejudice through education, while also addressing misinformation and hate speech more broadly.
The Liberal Democrats support inclusion-focused educational reforms and pathways for internationally qualified professionals, though without detailed anti-racist measures.
The SNP includes anti-racist commitments through wider education and equality policy, but with fewer specific proposals than in 2021.
The Conservative and Reform UK manifestos do not present education proposals linked to anti-racism.
Health and mental health
CRER calls for ethnicity tracking through the healthcare system and early intervention to prevent inequalities for BME people with severe mental illness.
The SNP’s most notable commitment is an independent report into maternal mortality affecting Scotland’s Black and Asian communities, aimed at identifying systemic bias and barriers to treatment.
The Scottish Greens also proposed funded research into women’s health inequalities, including maternal outcomes for minority ethnic people. Although they do not specifically discuss the linkage of ethnicity data with CHI, the Greens commit to improving “the collection of equalities data, in particular ensuring public bodies collect reliable intersectional equalities data”.
These commitments reflect growing recognition of unequal health outcomes. However, no party fully adopts CRER’s call for consistent ethnicity monitoring across the healthcare system.
On mental health, race-specific commitments remain limited. While mental health services are a major manifesto theme, there is no race-specific commitment or discussion.
Community cohesion and migration
CRER calls for promotion of community cohesion by strengthening the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.
Community Cohesion is primarily discussed within the manifestos in relation to migration, refugees, asylum seekers and ‘New Scots’, with little reference to the established minority ethnic communities in Scotland or UK-born people from BME backgrounds.
The Greens most directly engage with this priority, including a number of relevant commitments. These include a Community Cohesion Fund for areas hosting New Scots and advocating for devolved powers over asylum support. In response to rising hate crimes, they would also review theHate Crime (Scotland) Act and related policies.
The SNP also presents a distinct Scottish approach to migration, including a Scottish visa scheme and continued support for refugees and asylum seekers.
The Liberal Democrats focus on asylum reform, including lifting work restrictions and improving recognition of qualifications. They also pledge to tackle religious prejudice and confront divisive media that “inflames hatred and leads to spikes in hate crimes”.
Labour largely discussed community cohesion in relation to religion, with commitments on third sector funding, community safety, relationship building and anti-prejudice education work to tackle online hate. They also propose increased funding for ESOL courses and skills passporting for refugees.
Conservative and Reform manifestos focus primarily on immigration control and system reform rather than inclusion. Both would also repeal the Hate Crime (Scotland) Act, to ‘free up police time’ and ‘restore free speech’.
This creates a clear divide between parties framing migration as a social inclusion issue and those prioritising border governance.
Culture, history and representation
CRER’s manifesto calls for support for Scotland’s Museum of Empire, Slavery, Colonialism and Migration.
This area receives the strongest alignment from the Greens, who propose funding conditions for museums and cultural institutions to research and present histories of empire, colonialism and slavery, alongside support for restitution and repatriation.
Labour has previously supported museum and archive development centred on underrepresented histories, though 2026 commitments are less explicit.
The Liberal Democrats continue to support broader recognition of imperial and slavery histories.
The SNP includes cultural inclusion measures, though without direct commitment to the museum proposal.
The Conservatives and Reform do not advance comparable proposals in this area.
Representation in culture remains a point of distinction between parties willing to engage with historical accountability and those that do not prioritise it.
Which manifesto delivers?
Across the 2026 manifestos, the Scottish Greens provide the most detailed and structurally focused approach to race equality, embedding anti-racism across human rights, education, migration and culture.
The SNP includes several relevant commitments, particularly in health, migration and inclusion, but race equality is less consistently framed as a standalone policy priority.
The Liberal Democrats offer identifiable commitments on discrimination, asylum and inclusion, though at a more limited scale.
Labour acknowledges prejudice and inequality, but with just one targeted race equality commitment.
The Conservatives and Reform UK provide minimal race-specific policy content and limited alignment with CRER’s priorities.
You can read the parties' manifestos in full here:
Conclusion
Compared with 2021, the 2026 election cycle demonstrates the challenging landscape for race equality.
In 2021, race equality was a clear priority, explicitly named as a policy concern across the major party manifestos. Though imperfect, parties made commitments on ethnicity pay gap reporting, anti-racist education, and implementation of recommendations from the Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity. This consensus reflected the momentum around anti-racism in Scotland following 2020.
In 2026, that visibility, and consensus, has declined. While some parties continue to advance relevant proposals in areas such as maternal health, migration and anti-racist education, overall explicit race-specific commitments are sparse.
This is not because these problems have been solved. In several cases, despite worsening conditions for BME communities, previous commitments have been dropped. In others, implementation has stalled despite repeated pledges.
Most concerning are the manifesto proposals of measures that would actively worsen outcomes for minority ethnic communities, and further division in Scotland.
This is not simply a question of language. Structural inequalities remain stark: child poverty rates among minority ethnic households remain disproportionately high, BME communities experience significantly worse outcomes in mental health systems, and representation across the public sector remains far below population share.
Universal policy approaches alone cannot resolve these inequalities. Broad equality rhetoric is also not enough. Structural racism produces disparities that require targeted action, and dedicated attention.
CRER’s Manifesto for an Anti-Racist Scotland focused on specific, measurable and implementable actions for government. The next Scottish Parliament will be judged not by how often equality is referenced in principle, but by whether it takes deliberate action on the inequalities that continue to shape life in Scotland.
Make sure to vote on Thursday 7 May.