Labour leader defends ‘woke’ agenda at the National Trust
SIR KEIR STARMER will today defend the National Trust against accusations of “woke” behaviour as he claims the Tories have gone to “war” with the charity.
The Labour leader will accuse the Government of getting “so tangled up in culture wars of their own making” that they have ended up turning on the same organisations they “once regarded with respect” in a “desperate” attempt to cling to power.
In a major speech on his vision for the voluntary sector, Sir Keir will tell an audience of faith, charity and community leaders that the Conservatives have undermined the “proud spirit of service in this country” by “trying to find woke agendas” in Britain’s valued institutions. In particular, he will accuse the Tories of demeaning the valuable work of the National Trust by taking a “divisive” approach led by the “politics of self-preservation”.
He will also claim the party’s rhetoric on the small boats crisis has helped “demonise” the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, which had the late Queen as a patron for 70 years.
In recent years, the National Trust has faced growing anger over a series of decisions that have prompted claims it is following a “woke agenda”.
Bosses have been accused of “dumbing down” by removing important items from display and turning historic homes into “theme parks” designed for children. There was also a significant backlash after it emerged Christian holidays had been excluded from the trust’s “inclusivity and wellbeing” calendar. Last year, Lee Anderson, then a deputy Tory chairman, lashed out at the charity for publishing its own “manifesto” calling for “concerted action” on climate commitments, insisting: “Brits expect the National Trust to protect our heritage, not lecture them on net zero.”
In 2022, Conservative MP Andrew Murrison set up an All-party Parliamentary Group to scrutinise the trust, citing “recent controversies” around its “strategic direction”.
And in 2020, the Daily Express reported that a powerful group of Tory MPS were demanding the charity’s status be reconsidered after it published its properties’ links to slavery and colonialism. The Conservative Party’s official historian, Lord Lexden, said the institution engaged in an “act of folly” by issuing the “tendentious report”, which singled out 93 sites.