Rishi Sunak needs to apologize. It was extremely inappropriate to use trans people as a political joke in the Commons last week while Brianna Ghey’s mother was in office. Instead of continuing with self-exonerating misses, he should apologize. Mr. Sunak demonstrates a lack of connection with, interest in, and compassion for others by failing to acknowledge his mistake and make amends.
The words of the prime minister were demeaning and dehumanizing, and Brianna’s mother was right to call them that. She has requested apologies. However, if you haven’t listened to people, it’s difficult to communicate with them. These are the distraught parents of a young woman whose trans identity contributed to her murder. The least Mr. Sunak can do is express regret for his crude jibe. Unfortunately, he believes that dirty political calculations are more important than basic human decency.
The prime minister has made the decision to win in the court of popular opinion, which is what he cares about most: the votes of conservative voters. Mr. Sunak believes that in order to have any chance of winning the Wellingborough by-election, which is one of two on the same day this year, he may win these over. This is why he tried to reach voters on GB News, a Television station that deals in “anger-tainment,” on Monday. It’s a last-ditch effort. After a recall was triggered, Wellingborough’s Tory MP was forced to resign from the legislature after it was discovered that he had harassed staff members and provocatively exposed himself to them in hotel rooms.
Like its prime-time host Nigel Farage, GB News is remaking the Conservatives with the support of a multi-millionaire who supports Brexit. More than half of Tory members then tune into GB News, according to a recent survey conducted by the ConservativeHome site. Diverse social issues have a home on the network. It has trained viewers to love unpleasantness. Last year, James Kanagasooriam from the pollster Focaldata wrote about how social attitudes accounted for the tribal politics of today. According to his research, Mr. Farage’s Reform group supporters are increasingly against immigration and net-zero. Seven out of eight people think that sex at birth cannot be changed and that white people are the forgotten victims of bigotry. Mr. Sunak believes that since Reform outperformed the Lib Dems in polls, integrity can be put on hold. Yet some government ministers openly admit that he is mistaken.
The Conservative party is in such a state that it experiments with authorities through conspiracy theory, with “15-minute cities” influencing transportation policy. Although paranoia may enliven GB News viewers, it won’t affect the rest of the nation. According to Polling, they favor higher taxes for the wealthy and better public services. The reason Mr. Sunak is unable to connect with hard-up voters is undoubtedly due to paying a tax rate of only 23% on £2.2 million of his “earnings and profits” last year.
Local Tory politicians have avoided attacking “culture war” attacks on more general transgender issues, which may be of legitimate public interest, since Brianna’s passing. They had been roused from a political headache by tragedy. Abraham Lincoln referred to these people as “the better angels of our nature,” and Mr. Sunak could have used this opportunity to do so. Instead, he leaned into stoking his base’s resentment. He might believe that doing so makes it easier for him to argue against Labour without having to discuss real policy and prevents him from being held accountable for outrageous deeds like giving party cronies and donors peerages. This is not a sound legal argument. And, as the parents of a murdered teenager learned last week, it ends up in an extremely dark place.
