Curtice: Tory’s ‘anti-woke’ agenda retains Leave voters

THE Government’s “anti-woke agenda” is an attempt to hold on to votes from those who backed Brexit, according to a polling expert.

Professor Sir John Curtice has claimed that the Conservative Party is seeking to “tap into” a wider set of values held by those who voted to leave the EU in 2016.

Boris Johnson’s Government has been accused of seeking to start a culture war over issues like vandalism of statues and a crackdown on protecting free speech at British universities.

The polling expert told a Westminster briefing: “The fact that people who are pro-brexit are willing to support the Conservative Party, yes, it’s to do with Brexit in particular, but it is also of course to do with immigration.

“It is also now, as the Conservative Party realises, Brexit is also tapping into a wider set of more socially conservative values.

“And that’s why you can see why the Conservative Party are pursuing this anti-woke agenda, is indeed finding other ways of continuing to connect with the views of Leave voters.”

Sir John, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, said that support for the Conservative Party from those who went on to vote Leave was 45 per cent in 2015, the year before the referendum, increasing to 73% in 2019.

The pollster said support for the Tories was “little short of revolutionised by Brexit”, with the party maintaining the support of 66% of Leave voters up to last month.

Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the referendum, he told reporters that the UK remained “divided as a society” on the subject of Brexit.

He also said that the “level and character of support” for independence in Scotland had changed since the referendum, and this was likely to be the “next chapter” in the domestic debate over Brexit.