Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have targeted issues that “woke up” during the campaign and have been accused of using them as “red meat” to win support from the party’s grassroots. Although Truss was backed by Penny Mordant, who urged rivals not to fuel a culture war before she dropped out of the race last month, the trade secretary’s supporters have not followed her lead en masse. Instead, some privately accused Mordaunt of “selling out” and putting the possibility of a cabinet post ahead of her principles. The prospect of either Truss or Sunak winning, given the campaign, has many LGBTQ+ members concerned. Natalie Bowen, a member of the Welsh Conservatives and vice-chair of Rhondda pride, cited “huge concerns” about Sunak’s commitment to review the Equality Act. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Last week, the former chancellor hit out at “woke nonsense” and hit out at “left-wing rioters” for trying to “bulldoze our history, our traditions and our fundamental values”. He accused them of “rewriting the English language so we can’t use words like ‘man’, ‘woman’ or ‘mother’ without being told we’re offending someone”. Bowen said legislation to protect people with protected characteristics “will leave many groups vulnerable to persecution and attack” and added: “Homophobia and transphobia is not free speech, it is hate and hate must be challenged.” Given the government’s plan not to ban conversion practices for transgender people, Bowen said she was already questioning whether to remain a member of the Conservatives, but added that “the nature of the contest” had heightened those concerns. “I just hope the party remains a center-right party and doesn’t continue its turn to the extreme right,” he added. Elena Bunbury, who chairs the LGBT+ Conservative group but was speaking in a personal capacity, said she had “felt much less welcome” as a member since the leadership contest began. Having attended the first tours in Leeds last week, Bunbury said “hearing everyone cheering on the debate about reducing trans rights really pissed me off” and there had been “vulgar and unnecessary” talk about what should be a sensitive issue. Asked if the contest had made her question her Conservative status, Bunbury said: “For the first time since I joined at 16, it really did. It makes me think, “How can I campaign for a party if the leader doesn’t respect a community I’m proud to be a part of?” Bunbury said that to win back trust, candidates must not just offer “statements of support or promises of acceptance” but “concrete legislation that will continue to protect and defend the LGBT+ community”. Other LGBT+ Conservative members who did not feel confident speaking publicly complained that they felt they were “being used to boost one’s credentials” but would be “discarded when they were no longer politically useful”. They said they wished Truss and Sunak had used the campaign to address the patchy availability of the monkeypox vaccine, gender recognition law reform and a long-delayed crackdown on reassignment practices. With Truss leading the polls for Tory members, a senior LGBT+ figure in the party said they believed the issue “will calm down” when the next prime minister faces “much more important and pressing challenges and you don’t just have to play to the grassroots”. . Truss was credited with pushing back on Boris Johnson’s bid to prevent transgender people from being covered by the crackdown on conversion practices. But Ben Howlett, a former Conservative MP and member of the women and equalities select committee who now chairs a committee on LGBTQ+ rights, urged Truss to confirm whether she still believes transgender people should be covered in the bill. “We don’t have an answer yet,” he said. “The trans community is very vulnerable,” she said. “A significant number of them tried to kill themselves. So the idea that, in the middle of a campaign, you weaponize such a community to win votes is not conservative, it’s abhorrent.” A Truss campaign source said she and her supporters had “reached out to LGBT+ Conservatives and offered them a call to discuss any issues affecting them and Liz’s bold and ambitious plan for our country”. They added: “Trust is integral to Liz’s vision for leadership and she hopes she and her team will be able to put her case directly to LGBT+ Conservative members.” Sunak’s campaign has been contacted for comment.
