We must call a mother a mother, insists Sunak
‘[I will reverse] recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, genderneutral language’
RISHI SUNAK has promised to crack down on gender-neutral language if he becomes the next prime minister, as he declared “we must be able to call a mother a mother”.
The former Chancellor announced that the first policy of his leadership campaign would be an intervention in the culture wars – a topic he usually avoids.
Mr Sunak told The Mail on Sunday he would reverse “recent trends to erase women via the use of clumsy, genderneutral language” and argued that “we must be able to call a mother a mother and talk about breastfeeding”.
Other candidates, including Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch, have also emphasised the importance of cracking down on woke culture in their pitches for the leadership.
The announcement came after 42-year-old Mr Sunak was criticised for saying he would not immediately cut taxes as prime minister because they could “leave our children worse off tomorrow”.
Liz Truss, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid are all expected to run on a lowtax platform. But Mr Sunak is also thought to have taken a first mover advantage by announcing his campaign on Friday with a slick video that emphasised his family background and economic credentials.
His campaign has pledged to “restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite the country” and has garnered 10,000 online sign-ups in the first 24 hours.
Although he has avoided wading into the culture wars, Mr Sunak has said he thinks that government policy on toilets and transgender people participating in sports should be led by biology.
“You need to have compassion for those thinking about their identity and thinking about what that means for them, their families, as they’re potentially going through a change and we need to be compassionate and understanding about that,” he said in April.
“And we also have to have respect, in particular, for views of women who are anxious that some of the things they have fought really hard for and rights that are important to them will be eroded. We need to have respect for that point of view. Biology is critically important as we think about some of those very practical questions.”
Mr Sunak received the backing of Bim Afolami, a Conservative MP, who resigned his position as a party vicechair this week over the handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.
“We need a Prime Minister who can get our country through an economic crisis, and help implement a dynamic low tax economy for the long term,” Mr Afolami wrote in an article for telegraph.co.uk. “We need a Prime Minister who has the experience to rise to the challenges we face, and seize the incredible opportunities before us.
“And we need a Prime Minister who can unite the party, unite the country, and beat Labour.
“That man is Rishi Sunak.”