Don't be distracted by Conservative culture wars. They're trying to make us forget
Tory attacks on trans rights and non-crime hate incidents are a curtain. Behind it, the house is on fire.
Culture wars this, culture wars that. If you thought the Conservatives were ready to become a serious party, think again.
This week, on the anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, a landmark moment in Britain’s reckoning with institutional racism, the Tories chose to unveil a policy that actively dismantles one of the key recommendations of the inquiry into his death.
On Tuesday, they announced plans to scrap the recording of non-crime hate incidents [NCHIs], barring police from logging incidents involving prejudice. Though these are not criminal offences, they often serve as early warning signs – expressions of hostility toward people with protected characteristics such as race, religion, and gender identity.
Then on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch opened PMQs by attacking Keir Starmer’s understanding of what it means to be a woman, weaponising the Supreme Court ruling with a cruelty that leaves the trans community even more confused and vulnerable.
Watching Politics Live, I noticed the glee with which Tory ministers indulged in the ruling, an obvious attempt to distract from their party’s immense failures in office. One shadow minister, Alex Burghart, insisted the ruling mattered deeply to many of his constituents. To a small minority, perhaps. But come off it, Alex. The vast majority are still reeling from your government’s failure to fix the roof while the sun was shining and its catastrophic mismanagement of the UK economy.
A week out from the local elections, the Conservatives don’t want to talk about bankrupt councils, a health service on its knees, or a cost of living crisis that’s wrecking people’s lives. Instead, they’re doubling down on culture war talking points, scapegoating minorities, and drawing hard lines of division between voters to stop them pointing their figures at the party.
Announcing the NCHI policy, Badenoch dismissed the recording of such incidents as “chasing ideology and grievance instead of justice.” She called it a waste of police time, ignoring the fact that it was a direct recommendation from an inquiry into a racist murder that exposed deep, systemic police failings.
On LBC the same day, shadow Home Office minister Chris Philp denied the timing was deliberate. So which is it: Indescribably tone-deaf, or deliberately provocative? Either way, it tells you everything you need to know about the competence and values of this former governing party.
NCHIs exist for a reason. They were introduced to help police identify patterns of prejudice before they escalate into serious harm. They are a response to the institutional blind spots that failed Stephen Lawrence, his family, and a generation of Black Britons. Scrapping them under the banner of “free speech” and “common sense” isn’t about tackling crime. It’s about pretending hate doesn’t exist, doesn’t grow and doesn’t spiral.
Badenoch claims this will stop officers from “trawling social media” and get them “back to fighting real crime.” But hate doesn’t begin with violence. It begins with slurs, threats, and intimidation – a pattern that often precedes something far worse. Recording NCHIs allows police to spot those patterns early. Waiting until hate becomes something deadly means politicians have wilfully put marginalised groups in harm’s way. To call these incidents trivial is not just ignorant, it’s dangerous.
This is a culture war stunt from a party in terminal decline, desperate to peel off Reform UK voters while the country crumbles. The Tories themselves have previously backed NCHIs. As policing minister just two years ago, Chris Philp said: “If someone is targeted because of hostility or prejudice towards their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity, the incident can and should be recorded as a non-crime hate incident.”
The economy is flatlining, yet the Conservatives have no credible fiscal policy. Public services are collapsing, yet they offer no plan for councils or the NHS. Trust in policing is crumbling, not because officers are logging hate, but because of institutional misogyny, racism, and chronic underfunding. This is a party that cut police numbers and now blames “wokeness” for safety concerns.
Badenoch, the face of a party in freefall, embodies performative politics. Her message to marginalised communities is clear: if it’s not a crime, we don’t care, and if it is, don’t expect us to act in time. Her message to everyone else is just as stark: the Conservatives don’t care about your material reality, they just want another fight in the culture war.
These policies are political theatre — dog-whistles to the right designed to stoke resentment and bury the former government’s abject failures. NCHIs don’t criminalise free speech; they prevent hate from metastasising into violence. Scrapping them isn’t “common sense”, it’s wilful ignorance and it dishonours everything the Lawrence Inquiry stood for.
And when the government uses its platform not to fix, but to further demonise, it tells you all you need to know: The real scandal isn’t what they say. It’s what they’re trying to make us forget.
While global events continue to unfold this week – and politicians across the spectrum keep waging their own battles in the culture war – minorities at home are still fighting for their rights amid rising transphobia and right-wing backlash. Our contributor William Cuthbert has spoken to Trans+ individuals to capture their reactions in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that dealt a significant blow to their fight for recognition.
“We will not disappear”: Trans+ voices rise after Supreme Court blow
People in my community are frightened for their own safety, since the UK Supreme Court ruling that trans women are no longer legally recognised as women. But fear has never stopped us sharing our compassion for one another.
This transphobia and fear of the “other” are also seeping into our literature. Will shares a poignant account of how LGBTQIA+ books helped them come to terms with their own identity, and explains why these books are crucial for children.
Librarians face censorship over LGBTQIA+ books - now is the time for allyship
Librarians in the UK are seeing increasing intimidation to remove books about marginalised people, seemingly emboldened by similar censorship movements in the United States. Here, however, the threat’s focus is largely levelled at LGBTQIA+ books in school libraries, according to a survey by
This weekend we will be putting our feet up and watching Oscar-winning film Conclave, which has had a huge spike in streaming numbers since the death of Pope Francis. Apparently the movie gets a lot of the detail right, so let’s call it revision for upcoming events. And, if you happen to have a paid membership with the Daily Mail, you can read about Leah Borromeo – one of The Lead’s founders – on their decision to raise their child gender-free.
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Natalie, Ed, Zoe, Luke, Sophie, and The Lead team.
Badenoch was elected to be leader of the Tory Party so she can facilitate things like because of her race and skin colour. She is nothing but a puppet of white extremism and a 🥥