While the two Tory leadership candidates keenest on culture wars Suella Braverman and Kim Badenoch have been eliminated it doesnt mean that they wont feature over the summer election period. Neither Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss have record in this area of note. Sunak however as the Guardian revealed has some links to culture warriors par excellence Spiked. Truss is thought to have received transfer votes from hard right culture wars fanatic Badenoch. However behind her campaign was Gove whose motives are unclear.
Tim Bale who has studied party memberships at QMC (research by YouGov) notes in his 2019 book Footsoldiers:
“They’re socially much more conservative than [Tory] MPs but on basic economic underlying values they’re considerably more to the centre than [Tory] MPs, even though they’re not quite where voters are.”
Social conservatism equals culture wars its what Tory members want (see Daily Mail)
Statue of Boris Johnson anyone?
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