She said: "If we taught rights in the curriculum ？ human rights, civic rights ？ that would be the more relevant thing to teach our young people. Rather than fretting about one group versus another group, and whether one group has had innate advantages that other groups don't have. I prefer a unifying discourse to a divisive discourse. And I find those expressions to be divisive."

       Baroness Falkner, 66, said culture wars "are incredibly damaging to our health as a nation".

       She said the Equality and Human Rights Commission, of which she is chair, will "try and get different bodies around the same table and to try and get some reasonableness".

       A report from the Commons Education Select Committee last month claimed terminology such as "white privilege" may have contributed towards a "systemic neglect" of white working class pupils.

       Baroness Falkner has been drawing up a new strategic plan for the EHRC.

       The plan will "emphasise something that the Government too wants us to do, which is to be a better regulator, more agile".

       Equalities minister Liz Truss has insisted that the best way "to reduce unfairness" is "through opening up opportunities for all".

       Baroness Falkner added: "We've done some focus group research, and one of the things that came out was that we're very careful to get things right, but one of the consequences of that is that you're a bit slow."