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The Local Election Results Flush the Conservative Party’s Culture War Strategy Down the Gender Neutral Toilet

The Conservative party’s strategy of trying to win the general election through a mixture of ‘culture wars and the trans debate’ is only worsening their defeats to Labour

Rishi Sunak leaves Downing Street. Photo: Mark Thomas / Alamy

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The hours before any big election is a crucial time for any political party. 

With voters about to pick their local representatives in large parts of the country, you might have expected the Conservative party to have spent all of their time this week ramming home their big election messages about council tax and Labour mismanagement.

Yet on one of the biggest broadcasting slots afforded to the party on the eve of the local elections, one of the Conservative party’s leading figures instead devoted their energies to talking about toilets.

In a typically spiky performance on LBC, the Business Secretary and current favourite to become the next Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch berated the host about her use of the term “culture wars” while repeatedly failing to substantiate her claims about the prevelance of non-gender specific toilets in schools and their impact on the number of urinary tract infections currently being experienced by girls.

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