Running on empty: how motorists became the new front in Sunak’s culture wars

When you can’t hope to win on the economy, public services or your party’s record after 13 years in power, what do you run on, asks Sean O’Grady

There is a feeling of persecution abroad, and it’s easy to see why (PA Wire)

Politics, as they say, is tribal, and Rishi Sunak seems to be concentrating on identifying and recruiting certain types of tribes to help turn his rather desperate fortunes around, with the common theme a form of social conservatism and innate scepticism about the progressive and green agenda – the so-called “culture wars”.

Trans rights, climate change, migration are the now established themes, pursued with the enthusiastic support of our hard-right dominated mainstream media, and with the tacit admission that the Tories cannot win on the economy, public services or their record after 13 years in power.

It’s all he’s got, these culture wars, and as a strategy it doesn’t “deserve” to win; but if the Conservatives persuade enough of the small-c conservative electorate that “you can’t afford to vote Labour”, then things may look very different when election day comes round next year.