Stoking culture wars won't save Tories, pollsters warn

Sunak told right-wing rhetoric is 'not a winning strategy'

- DAVID MADDOX , ARCHIE MITCHELL

Rishi Sunak was warned yesterday that his culture-war strategy will “not save the Tories”, as Sir Keir Starmer brutally mocked him at Prime Minister’s Questions by calling him “a jumped-up milk monitor”. The Labour leader went on the attack over plans to ban “rainbow lanyards” in the civil service, as leading pollsters questioned the Tory strategy after the government unveiled plans to ban explicit sex education in schools until children turn 13 along with lessons about gender identity.

This latest foray into the culture wars followed a major speech on Monday by the common sense minister Esther McVey, in which she unveiled new civil service rules to end so-called “woke activism” in Whitehall and elsewhere, including a ban on rainbow lanyards. Ministers also unveiled new stop and search powers for police in an effort to tackle knife crime.

The new strategy comes after the Techne UK weekly tracker poll recently showed that Labour’s lead over the Tories had increased to 24 points in the wake of Dover MP Natalie Elphicke’s defection over the small boats crisis. Pollsters told The Independent that the strategy would not work, and that Mr Sunak needs to somehow get his message on the economy over to voters instead.

Sir John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said: “Culture issues are related to attitudes to Brexit, and divide party supporters more than they did. So they have some appeal for the Conservative base, but the principal reasons why people have left the Tories are the economy, the NHS, and leadership – not any failure to address cultural issues. It is not clear how a focus on them will win many back.