It may not save them at the polls, but immigration and the culture war are all they have. And the toxicity that will create doesn’t concern them
A chilling preview of a new turmoil is unfolding. “Migrant hunts” at hotels housing asylum seekers, protests including the hard right or arranged by its members, most recently this weekend in Rotherham, have doubled over the past year. The signs are that it will only get worse, as the Conservative party, having run out of credibility and ideas, looks set to spin the wheel and put everything on culture war. Last week, Iain Anderson, a senior Tory business leader, quit the party as he had learned in discussions with party insiders that Rishi Sunak plans to “ramp up the culture wars” in his 2024 election strategy. In the same week, the party’s new deputy chair, Lee Anderson, said that the next election will probably be “a mix of culture wars and trans debate”.
A vulgar departure from the dog-whistle approach of the past there from Anderson, but clarifying nonetheless. It was “Brexit, Boris and Corbyn” that won it for us in 2019, he went on to helpfully explain. We managed to hoodwink voters last time, he basically stopped short of saying, so now we have to find new ways to do it.
